A Reason To Fight
by Gragagagagagagaga
Summary: Harry's soul and Snape's livelihood are threatened as their masters clamor for control. AU, Dark, Slash, Het, Violence, Lang, Drugs, Underage, Magical Creature Sex, Noncon, Character Death, Unhappy Ending, Sexy!Snape, OOC, Dark Humor, general blasphemy.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer for ARTF: Not mine.

Harry potter had never before feared the wrath of Albus Dumbledore.

Harry sat in Dumbledore's office idly tapping one of his worn shoe clad feet against the carpeted floor, trying to keep his mind off of what he knew was inevitably to come by counting the stitches in the carpet.

He had gotten to seventy-three when the sound of his own breathing had startled him. After beginning again he had gotten to fifty-seven when he had confused the whispering of one of the many pictures in the peculiar office for the sound of the headmaster approaching. His heart had nearly stopped in his chest.

Dumbledore had always had a soft spot for him. Harry had done things ten times as ridiculous and thousands of times as dangerous. He had simultaneously broken hundreds of rules and after he had finished his blatant disregard of authority Dumbledore would only smile, aid him, commend him, or give him a pat on the back for a job well done: encourage him. This time however, he knew that Dumbledore would let him have it. The headmaster had every right to simply flay him. And Harry knew it.

Before he had only been disobedient when lives were on the line; when the fate of the wizarding world itself hung in the balance.

"Of course he would not have been angry with me then, if I was not so reckless people could have died!" He muttered aloud before realizing the irony of the last statement. He almost smiled at it, before the eyes of the myriad pictures, all focused on him either accusingly or with intense interest, brought him back to reality.

"Oh, sod off." He groaned at the pictures and put his head in his hands. Attempting to shield himself from their gazes.

"Well I never."

"How rude!"

"To think, our young Mr. Potter, a bad seed."

"Oh, I quite agree."

"Shut up!" Harry cried and several of them took their last jeers and jabs at the distraught young man before either disappearing into obscurity or falling into silent observation.

With their silence Harry fell back into his thoughts, which were even more torturous then their scrutiny.

"Before when I rebelled, it was because I stood for what was right." He muttered aloud at an odd moment, nearly ten minutes later. "Now I deliberately disobeyed Dumbledore because I am-"

"Because you are what, Mr. Potter?"

_Shite!_ Harry looked to see Dumbledore approaching him from behind. He suddenly felt the old man's presence like a thick suffocating fog. There was an electricity in the air that betrayed just how on edge the younger wizard was. He had never been claustrophobic, but the walls seemed to be closing in about him. He imagined that something in the headmaster's gait was predatory.

_He's going to kill me. He's going to kill me. He's going to kill me! He's going to kill-" _

"Speak Harry. Finish your thought." Dumbledore said, his tone betraying nothing; not anger, not impatience, and decidedly not the usual jovial or almost paternal attitude which followed Harry's usual antics and escapades. Harry's first impulse was to look at the headmaster to examine his countenance for inklings as to his underlying emotion, but after remembering who exactly he was dealing with he came to the wise conclusion that it would not help him in the least. This alone frightened him to a point where it took every last ounce of dignity and all of the strength he possessed not to crumble.

"Harry…" The entirely flat tone nearly sent Harry running out of the door. When Dumbledore rested a friendly hand on his shoulder he felt as if a particularly unrelenting dementor had sank its cadaverous claws into his flesh.

"Now I deliberately disobeyed Dumbledore because I am…" _A liar._

"Harry."

"…because I am…" _Hiding something. _

"Yes, Harry?"

"…I am…" _Deathly afraid of the consequences._ "…Because…" _If Snape were to find out I'm as good as dead. The greasy old bastard already hates me. He'd have a bloody fucking Christmas in…Jesus- I don't even know what damned month it is!_ "Petty." Harry spat out rather unconvincingly.

"Petty?" Dumbledore asked, moving behind his desk to face Harry, who nodded mutely.

"Care to elaborate, Mr. Potter."

_He's calling me Mr. Potter again. He's even angrier with me because he knows that I'm full of it._ "Snape and I hate each other, headmaster. It's no secret! You can ask anyone. If you ask me, he's the petty one, taking it out on me because my dad played a few tricks on him when they were students!"

"Three Occlumency lessons, all three ended short, Mr. Potter."

"Once he threw me out because it backfired and I got to see him a gangly greasy student trekking across the school grounds streaming toilet paper behind him!" _The git!_

"And the other two lessons ended with you fleeing from the room in near hysterics. Can you explain what prompted you to act so rashly, when you know that your very sanity and life may depend on honing and utilizing Occlumency skills against Voldemort?"

_Shite! _"Sir, he intentionally went through all of my worst and most secret memories! It was horrible!"

"Like what, Mr. Potter?"

"When I watched Voldemort kill Cedric! Seeing Hermione petrified by the basilisk for the first time and for that first split second thinking that she was dead and beyond the help of any potion! The Dementors and…and…my mother screaming…" Harry said and Dumbledore sighed.

"Professor Snape said that you withstood all of that, Harry." The older wizard replied. "He said that you fought, albeit unsuccessfully. He said that he could feel it, up until one particular memory would arise."

"He's lying. He nearly killed me!"

"And when this one particular face appeared you would run as far away as fast as possible."

"Sir, I cannot do this!"

"But you must Harry, you must fight." Harry only sat shaking his head sadly as Dumbledore continued. "I am scheduling your next Occlumency lesson for Monday following the evening meal. It will give you the weekend to rest."

Harry looked as if he were about to protest, but the stern look in his Headmaster's eyes stopped him. "Yes Sir." Harry replied sheepishly

"Now go to bed Harry, get some rest." Dumbledore said and Harry nodded before leaving his office. He headed straight to the crowded common room, ignoring all of the people who attempted to find out about his little sojourn to Dumbledore's office, and then to the dormitories where he collapsed on his four poster bed with his uniform and shoes still on. When Ron came to check on him he rolled over and feigned sleep. Ron returned to the common room.

* * *

Author's note: Since its been awhile, I'll go through this again.

You can hate the plot, the way I've portrayed the characters, the grammar, the style, the fact that I basically ditched this story on a whim, my style, my tone, the shortness of the chapters, and anything like that. I'm sure that its basically a free country wherever you are and I really appreciate constructive criticism. However, if you don't read the warnings and get offended by something I warned you about in the first place and want to write me a long review telling me what a perverse waste of flesh I am, shut up. In fact, go back and reread the warnings now just to make sure that there is nothing in there that will offend your delicate sensibilities. If there isn't, welcome to the twisted workings of my mind. I hope you like them.

And I am really sorry for basically ditching this for no apparent reason. I used to be RhiannonVega fyi, so I'm still the same sarcastic snape-obsessed writer, I just have a different penname.


	2. Severus' Accusation

It was Saturday afternoon when Professor Severus Snape finally found Albus Dumbledore. The elderly wizard was enjoying a leisurely stroll by the Lake.

"Headmaster." Severus said in greeting as he fell in stride with Dumbledore.

"Why do you look so grave Severus? It is a beautiful day."

"Headmaster, I have been thinking and- I think we should continue this conversation in a more secluded spot, where no one can eavesdrop, as it were." He said and looked quickly over to Umbridge who stood near by, looking entirely too pleased with herself.

Dumbledore nodded and they walked silently back through the grounds to the statue that marked the entrance to the Headmaster's office where they climbed the ascending stairs and entered. Fawkes landed happily on his master's shoulder as Dumbledore sat behind his desk. Severus sat in the chair before his desk. He looked almost painfully nervous.

"What has happened?"

"I am not entirely sure, Sir." Severus replied, folding his hands in his lap. "But I believe that it is entirely possible that Sirius Black may be hiding something of consequence from the order."

"And how did you come to such a conclusion Severus?"

"Every time I happen upon a memory of him in Mr. Potter's mind he panics, almost to the point of becoming mentally unstable and flees before I can see the rest of it. I find that questionable."

"As do I, but my first conclusion would not be that Black is a traitor to the order."

"If he had confided in Harry, Harry may be afraid that if I see the memories of their exchanges the only family he has left in the world would come to harm, or even worse be lost to him forever."

"That is possible, but not probable. Sirius is a devoted member of the order and he would never put Harry in any danger. He really cares for him."

"It was simply a thought. I could find out what he is hiding, easily."

"Severus, you mustn't!" Dumbledore stated emphatically. "With Harry in such a state with such an unprotected mind he is vulnerable to the influence of the dark. He is on the very brink. On top of all other pubescent confusion he is angry, and he is confused, and he feels alone in the world (and all for good reason). While he is good at heart his anger and loneliness poison him more by the day. If we cannot convince him that we are his allies he will be easily seduced by Voldemort. You will not earn his trust and make him truly feel that we are his allies by running rampant through his mind and terrifying him."

"What do you suggest I do then headmaster?"

"I know that simply to look at him must kill you, but you must put your anger and pain aside. Our world hangs in the balance and I will not let your petty resentment and arbitrary loathing destroy the only hope we have left. Start with simple things, memories of his friends. When he can resist that then you can penetrate more deeply, but only then."

"Very well headmaster." Snape said and quitted Dumbledore's office.

* * *

Author's Note/ Review Replies:

HeatherLB: LOL. I'm just one insane nutjob aren't I? I'm glad that you like the story. It just really annoys me when people complain about things that you already warned them about. Thanks for reviewing.

KnowingDivine: Your nightmares... mwahaaahaaa! Thanks for reviewing.

AN: Press the little blue button!


	3. The Magic of Bacon

"Harry, you've been quiet all day. Are you well?" Hermione asked as they sat at the Gryffindor table in the dining hall.

"Yeah…younah eatin." Ron's muffled reply came through a leg of pheasant.

"Do you ever _stop_ eating?" Hermione asked disgustedly as a piece of chicken skin stuck out of Ron's overstuffed mouth and he sucked it back in. While his mouth was overstuffed he attempted to take a gulp of pumpkin juice, which poured down his chin as he chewed.

"I'm a growing boy. What do you expect?" He asked snidely through a mouthful of some indistinguishable pudding.

"It's a wonder you're not growing sideways. What is that? Your eighth helping of pudding?"

"What do you, work for the Department of Food Regulation at the Ministry of Magic?"

"What do you, suddenly think you're clever?"

With Ron and Hermione deep in their usual playful arguing Harry was forgotten. While he had planned only to put some food of his plate and absentmindedly mash it with his fork until it became one disgusting homogenous mass, half-listen to the conversations of the others around him, and then reluctantly trudge to his Occlumency lesson he found his mind wandering.

_He had been in the kitchen of 12 Grimmauld Place one night over the summer, unable to sleep. He had been sitting at the table starving and planning on drinking water until he was satiated when suddenly his godfather appeared. _

"_You look like death took a holiday Harry." The older man said, his grey eyes shining and his dark hair tousled from sleep. He walked in barefoot and wore light purple silken pyjamas, which was quite a change from his usual outfit. Harry had to stifle laughter. _

"_And you look like you killed some poor old woman's unsuspecting curtains." Harry replied with a grin. _

"_Courtesy of Mrs. Weasley" Sirius said and sighed. "What are you doing stomping down the hallways this late? It's nearly three in the morning." _

"_I was…hungry." Harry said and took another gulp of water. _

"_Hungry?" Sirius said and suddenly his eyes lit up. Harry recognized this as the look that overcame his godfather when he felt that he had come up with something witty to say. It was only a flicker but it was enough. "Do you drink water whenever you're hungry? No wonder a giant could use you to pick meat from his teeth." Sirius finished and after waving his wand two plates of bacon, eggs, and fried toast, and two mugs of tea appeared. _

_Harry only stared at Sirius blankly as he began to attack the plate as if he had never eaten before. Harry watched him eat and laughed. _

"_After you spend twelve years in Azkaban, you try not attacking the first plate of bacon you see." _

"_So, if you were just set free and had a choice between the most gorgeous woman in the world and a steaming plate of bacon you would have chosen-" _

"_The bacon: And I would not think twice about it either." _

_Harry laughed and started to eat the food before him. Upon tasting the bacon he almost groaned. Sirius looked at him oddly.. _

"_No it's just that…If I had spent twelve years in Azkaban and when I was set free had a choice between the most beautiful woman in the world and bacon-" he paused to take another bite. "If they told me that Sirius Black was going to conjure the bacon, I would take the bacon." _

"Harry, what are you smiling about?" Ron asked. Hermione along with several other people were giving him strange looks.

_They must think that I've completely lost it._ "Nothing." He muttered aloud. "I think that I'm hungry after all." He finished and attacked his plate with renewed vigor.

"Whatever he was thinking about, I'm glad he was thinking about it. That was the first time I've seen him eat or even look remotely happy in a long time." Hermione said to no one in particular and then glared at Ron when he did not respond.

"I agree." He muttered half-heartedly through a mouthful of stew.

"Disgusting." Hermione said and turned back to Harry who was still happily eating. "So, what brought about the sudden good mood? We were both really worried about you."

"When I used to have trouble sleeping late at night I would sometimes go to the kitchen or the library, or the parlor and my godfather would always seem to be there. Sometimes we'd just talk or sometimes we wouldn't say anything at all; all though he would almost always make bacon…" Harry trailed off with a nostalgic grin, which Hermione returned. The friends once again fell into a comfortable silence.

The warm feeling which had encompassed Harry's entire being did not last long. Dinner ended and Snape was expecting him.

* * *

Author's Note: I just discovered the fun of taking pictures of myself with my phone. Oh, and go on youtube and look up clips of David Cook on Best Week Ever. It's three times as flammable (but worth the risk)!!

KnowingDivine: Then I must have appeared in one of your exhausted caffiene addled mind's hallucinations. I am the one who bellydances to the sounds of iced tea being stirred backwards while wearing a codpeice and spats. I believe I introduced myself as Phil.

munchnzoey: Thanks. Glad you like it.


	4. Once A Dog Always A Dog

Harry sighed as he walked down the nearly deserted castle corridor to the door of Professor Snape's classroom. Every time he reached the door and raised his fist to knock he found himself thinking the exact same thing.

_Why am I here again? _

While he knew perfectly well why he was to be subjected to another hour or so of torturous Occlumency it had never fully sunk in, or rather he could not bring himself to simply accept it. It was _Snape_ he was dealing with after all! Just as he raised his fist to knock again the door creaked open.

"Mr. Potter." He heard the monotonous, condescending voice of the Potions Master before he saw him, sitting behind his desk at the far end of the classroom. Harry silently entered the dark and gloomy domain of the potion's master. The man seemed to be glaring and angry with him already.

"Let us make one thing perfectly clear," Snape said as he rose from his desk. The doors slammed loudly behind Harry as he stepped forward; reminding him of a horror movie he had watched at the Dursley's several summers ago. "I do not want to be here and you do not want to be here. However it is vital to our cause that we suffer one another. If I do not successfully teach you Occlumency Voldemort could not only have unlimited access to all of your thoughts, knowledge, and memories but he could come to possess you, and even worse I will receive one leviathan of a lecture from an irate Dumbledore."

If anyone else had said exactly that Harry would have assumed that they were joking and possibly even laughed it off. However, something told him that Snape was wholly serious.

"So you will be mature and you will not leave this room until your lesson is complete. Agreed?"

"Yes professor." Harry replied weakly. _As mature as you'll be._

"Good." Snape replied flatly, that obviously being the last word he truly thought described their situation. He then roughly took Harry by the arms and pulled him back to the other side of the room by his desk. Harry wretched inwardly (and perceptively) at the older man's touch. Snape felt this and rolled as eyes as he positioned the boy on a chair and sat in one across from him. Harry looked down at his feet, wishing he were somewhere else.

"I will now penetrate your mind."

"What?" Harry asked, not quite catching the words of his professor. Before he knew it he felt something similar to being thrown back several feet. Then memories began to swim before his eyes. First he saw when he had met Ron and he tried to impress him by using a spell to turn his pet rat yellow, followed by Aragog, the last thing he saw was a brief glimpse of the Yule Ball.

"You are not even attempting to resist me Mr. Potter."

"I wasn't ready professor. You caught me off guard."

"Of course." Severus replied caustically. "Try again."

This time Harry resisted to the best of his ability and only managed to delay Severus's attack before he hit him full force, walking through a memory of a strange, dopey look Ginny had given him one morning when he had stayed with the Weasley's. When Snape finally relented Harry found himself beyond exhaustion. He collapsed, nearly falling off of his chair.

"Well, at least you are _attempting_ to resist." Snape droned as he looked toward the clearly exhausted Harry. "Shall we try again?"

"Professor I…I…need a rest." Harry moaned quietly.

"Fine Potter, you have five minutes."

Harry only let his head fall over the back of the chair, his body going limp as Snape exited the room.

Snape returned four and a half minutes later to find Harry soundly asleep. He sighed, finding the resemblance between Harry and his belated father eerie. Snape recalled days when James had fallen asleep in class in a similar position. This recollection only fueled his hatred.

"POTTER!" He barked and sent Harry near falling off of his chair, shaking. "Useless boy." He muttered. "Get out."

"What?" Harry asked, semi-dazed and still fighting the lingering effects of sleep and exhaustion.

"You are weak and cannot handle any more today. Return Wednesday." Snape said and Harry stood shakily at first but his emerald eyes blazed with indignation.

"I can handle anything you can give me, Professor." Harry said.

"You are as pale as death and can barely stand. Go back to Gryffindor Tower, Potter." Snape hissed.

"No." Harry replied.

"Listen boy-"

"Not willing to try again Professor?"

The next thing Harry knew _he saw Lupin's face, the kind eyes flecked with gold and the frowning lips. He looked clearly upset. Harry looked as if he wanted to burst into tears, but simply couldn't. "Harry, you can tell me." Lupin said, his soft-spoken voice poignant. He wasn't wearing a shirt and he wiped sweat from his forehead, his hair was dripping. The walls and ceiling of the room itself seemed to be sagging due to the torrid summer heat. They were sitting on the edge of a white bed in a fair-sized room. Snape recognized it as Lupin's room in 12 Grimmauld Place._

_"Remus-"_

_"You do trust me, don't you?"_

_"Remus, it's just that I-"_

_The older man silenced him by putting his arm around him. Harry sighed miserably. "I just don't know how to tell you in a way that doesn't sound…"_

_"Doesn't sound what, Harry?" Remus asked gently and Harry seemed to shrink even further into himself._

_"Completely…horrible."_

And suddenly it stopped as Snape was forced away and out of Harry's mind. Harry nearly collapsed. He was shaking.

"Perhaps you are not entirely encapable after all." Snape said after Harry had stopped shaking. He made no attempt to help him up. The snide professor spoke in such a way that made his compliment sound like complete mockery. "Come back Wednesday."

Harry's eyes suddenly grew wide. "W-Wednesday?"

"Yes Potter, Wednesday." Snape said as he sat back at his desk and began to grade essays. Harry began to walk toward his desk.

"What is it Potter? I dismissed you, in case you have forgotten."

Harry swallowed. "It's just…could I have one more day, Professor?"

"Have you already made prior engagements, Potter?"

"No." Harry replied evenly. "I just need the extra day to rest. You've nearly killed me Sir!" Harry exclaimed.

"Fine, we will reconvene on Friday." Snape replied, hoping that making their lesson on a Friday night would make Harry reconsider.

Harry gasped, almost unable to believe that Snape had actually done him a favor. He nearly smiled but caught himself. Snape gazed at him suspiciously.

"I am watching you Potter and whatever or whomever takes precedence over our lessons: I can promise you that I will uncover it."

"There is nothing prof-"

"Get out, boy." Snape hissed and Harry left the classroom as fast as his legs could take him.

"Not even near fifteen years in Azkaban could change him," Snape mused as he picked up an essay so illegible that he could not even be certain of who wrote it, let alone whether or not it was well written or even what the topic of it was. "Once a dog, always a dog."

Author's Note/Review Reply:

KnowingDivine: I'm doing very sexily. And yourself?

AN: So, yeah. I got these sexy ghetto headphones. They weigh as much as my head, but I don't care beacuse they are amazing.

"Jesus walked into a hotel with some nails and asked "Can you put me up for the night?"


	5. Twice In One Day?

Harry woke up and immediately felt anxious and excited. Tonight was the night of January twenty-sixth, the third Wednesday of January. Tonight he would see his godfather. Shortly after discovering the Room of Requirement he had sent Sirius an owl telling him to meet him there.

Sadly, their visits were few and far between. It was nearing February and they had only seen one another five times throughout the course of the year. He was nearly shaking as he got dressed and readied for the day.

Harry quietly sat during breakfast. He ate a generous amount and politely answered anything he was asked with a semi-genuine smile, without really joining any of the conversations which surrounded him. He did seem happy and aware enough to avoid any of Hermione's usual questioning as to his health and how he was faring in general. He was glad of this, as he was bursting with so much excitement that he doubted he would be able to keep his voice even.

During all of his morning classes he was completely gone mentally which earned him strange looks from his teachers and once again Hermione's attention. During lunch he answered all of her questions half-heartedly before falling back into reverie. Hermione barely noticed, for she spent the rest of the meal scolding Ron for not noticing how strangely their best friend was behaving. He ignored her and seemed to try and drown her out by chewing loudly on whatever crunchy food was within grabbing distance.

He had the urge to go up and beat the clock until it moved along a bit faster several times during his afternoon classes. He nearly lost it during potions. Snape seemed to call on him four times as much as he usually did, just because he knew he could embarrass him. Hermione was so busy worrying about Harry that Snape had even managed to catch her off guard. She had managed to answer the question, but only after stumbling for a good few minutes. The second potions was over he nearly jumped for joy. After potions he had only one more class.

He, Ron, and Hermione were leaving the classroom when suddenly the most shocking thing in all the world occurred.

"Ms. Granger." The monotonous, grating, and unnerving voice of Professor Severus Snape came from the other end of the room. "I need to speak with you." Immediately all of the stragglers came to a complete stop and looked at Hermione. It was common knowledge that Snape did not and had _never_ met with a student under any circumstance. Harry paled and Ron looked confused.

"Come on Ron, we'll be late." Harry muttered as he dragged Ron from the room.

Hermione approached the potions master's desk warily. He appeared to be too enrapt in readying a potion's demonstration for the next class to pay her any mind. She felt incredibly foolish and out of place hovering silently as he meticulously measured ingredients and poured them in different glass phials. His pallid lithe hands worked quickly and precisely. There was something almost admirable about it.

"A bit off today, Ms. Granger?" At the sound of his voice she nearly fainted, only staring at him blankly. The only response she could manage was to blink inanely. "Apparently." He muttered. He flicked his wand and suddenly the small cauldron on his desk filled with water.

"Professor it is just that I am…" She could almost feel herself shaking. She found something about her Professor's gaze highly unnerving. She had started to come up with an excuse when she remembered that Snape was an Occlumens, so if she were to lie he would automatically know.

"That you are what Ms. Granger?"

"Scared." Hermione replied quietly after a long pause. "Scared for Harry. Ever since the summer he just…hasn't been himself."

"That is…understandable. I, myself, am worried about the boy."

"But you don't even like him!" Hermione blurted and immediately put her hand over her mouth. To her infinite surprise Snape smiled slightly.

"As true as that may be he is the only one who can defeat Voldemort and I will not put my petty loathing before the fate of the world."

Hermione nodded; shocked to hear the word's coming from Snape's mouth. "That is…_understandable_." She said and put her hand over her mouth again, realizing that it sounded like she was mocking him.

"Indeed." Snape replied. "Now, I think your young friend may be in grave danger. I have seen things during our Occlumency lessons, things which have given me great cause to worry." Hermione grew pale. "I suspect that someone in the order is a betrayer and possibly putting Harry in harm's way."

Hermione gasped.

"I know in the past that I have called you an insufferable know-it-all; and while it remains true you are also brilliant beyond your years and incredibly perceptive. I believe that Harry's mind and judgment are being compromised by this double-agent."

"So you want me to secretly keep an eye on him and report to you the second he does something rash or strange, for his own protection." Hermione stated.

Snape nodded.

"He's a teenage boy and a Gryffindor! If I took him to you every time he did something stupid or rash or life-threatening we would never leave your classroom." She thought aloud and abruptly stifled herself. What was she saying?

_Come on Granger! Get a grip!_

To her surprise a ghost of a smile graced her professor's face. He let out a short, sharp laugh. It was actually a rather pleasant sound.

_Twice in one day? _

"Nevertheless, you will do this?"

"Of course professor. I would do anything to ensure Harry's safety."

"Very well, you may go Ms. Granger."

Hermione nodded and left the room to find a group of anxious looking third years standing by the door, acting as if they had not been eavesdropping. She rolled her eyes at them and nearly ran to Transfiguration. She opened the door to find the class being chased by an angry army of flying fanged books. Draco was hiding under a table and Ron had Harry had been encircled on top of a desk by a large number of the vial things. For every one they petrified two or three more seemed to return. A Slytherin boy had grabbed onto two of them and was screaming merrily as they flew him about the room. McGonagall was yelling madly for order as she turned as many of the bizarre half-book-half-fanged-birds back into birds as she could. Hermione immediately began to help her and before long all of the strange creatures had been transfigured back into birds.

"Well done Ms. Granger." Professor McGonagall said as she sat back behind her desk and the students grudgingly returned to theirs. Hermione sat in between Ron and Harry at one of the desks toward the back of the classroom.

"What did the greasy old git want with you?" Ron whispered as McGonagall regained her wits.

"He thought that I helped you cheat on an essay." Hermione replied. Ron rolled his eyes and let out an angry huff. She looked to see Harry totally lost in his own world.

"Ms. Granger." Hermione looked to see McGonagall sitting behind her desk.

"Yes professor?"

"You were fifteen minutes late to class. I expect that you have an explanation?"

"Professor Snape wanted to see me." Hermione said evenly, as if there was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary about Professor Snape (who was considered by most the single coldest and most antisocial wizard that had ever lived) having a chat with one of his students after class. Minerva might not have even been so suspicious if a Slytherin had said the exact same thing.

"Really?" Professor McGonagall and about ten other students gasped in chorus.

"Yes," Hermione said, looking at all of the shocked people in the classroom as if he were a few ingredients short of a potion. "He thought I had helped Ron cheat on an essay."

"Stupid bloody git." Ron muttered.

"Mr. Weasley!" McGonagall snapped and Ron apologized mutedly.

"Very well." McGonagall replied and resumed the lesson.

* * *

Author's Note/ Review Reply:

Author's Note: I found this really amazing story. It's called Mulligan and its by Elpin. Look it up. It's Harry/Lucius- but don't let that turn you off if you've never been into the pairing before. It's also a time turner fic- only unlike most time-turner fics its well done. There's also this other time-turner-esque fic called "For All Intents And Purposes" by RhiannonoftheMoon. It's Hermoine/Severus and it's BRILLIANT!

DebsTheSlytherinSnapefan: I'm going to be honest with you, this is not a snarry story. Sorry if I led you on into thinking it was, I didn't mean to. I hope you continue reading anyway, as this isn't a heavily pairing-driven plot. Thanks for the review and I'm glad you like it. It will get even better as the plot picks up.


	6. Woolgathering

Dinner was torture for Harry. He must have looked at his watch a thousand times within the first ten minutes.

"A little distracted are we?" Hermione asked casually as Harry ladled creamed vegetables into his goblet.

"What-"Harry began but stopped with a pained groan as he dropped the steaming vegetable laden ladle in his lap. He jumped as the heat burnt his skin and it clattered against the floor. He groaned and cursed under his breath for a few minutes, too frustrated to care enough to pick it up. Upon looking up he perceived worried honey colored eyes.

"Hermione, I'm all right." He said unconvincingly and the meddlesome girl shook her head.

"No you're not Harry. You barely eat and you spend nearly all of your time woolgathering."

"Woolgathering?" Harry sighed, not possessing the patience to tolerate Hermione's worried mother act at the moment.

"What Hermione is trying to say, is that you're a bloody space case, mate." Ron explained as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Thanks, Ron." Hermione rolled her eyes. "But honestly Harry, if you ever need someone to talk to about anything at all-"

"We're here for you." Ron added and Hermione nodded.

"Thanks guys." Harry said. "You're good friends." And he went back to eating.

"I just can't believe Snape actually did something a…a_ human_ being would do." Harry mused about ten minutes later and Hermione paled. "Usually when he even suspects someone of cheating he just fails them and if they are friends with me or a Gryffindor he makes them serve a week of detention."

"I bet Dumbledore told him to ease up a bit." Ron said. "The stupid bloody anorak git bastard-"

Harry nearly spit out his pumpkin juice when Hermione rolled her eyes, as if Ron's insults of the assuredly evil professor annoyed her. Ron blinked vacantly at the exchange he had completely missed and Harry sighed. "I think I'll head up early." Harry muttered and departed quickly from the great hall.

Ron began to babble inanely about the view he had gotten when some girl had bent over in charms class to Neville and Hermione was trying desperately to ignore them when she suddenly felt eyes on her. She glanced to see Professor Snape looking at her discreetly over his goblet from the staff table.

"_Where is he going?"_ Snape mouthed and Hermione rested her head in her hands and gently brushed the Gryffindor insignia on her cloak. Snape nodded and went back to his food.

Three people in the dining hall had observed this exchange: McGonagall, Dumbledore, and worst of all; Draco Malfoy.

"Did you see that look Snape gave Granger?" Draco muttered to Goyle with a smirk. "I bet the filthy mudblood finally decided to leave the wizarding to the wizards."

Goyle grunted.

Author's Note/ Review Replies:

KnowingDivine: That's good. School just ended for me. I'M FINALLY FREEEEEEEE!!

Author's Note: So, yeah. Summer has commenced. FUCK YEAH! Please review. It would make me so happy to know someone was actually effected enough by this to write me something. Oh, and if you like Snarry I found just about the greatest fanfiction there is. It's called Paradox of Existence and it's by DragonLight. Just type it in google as its not on this website. It is twenty-two chapters of awesome. Seriously, if my fic is half as good as that I will be happy.


	7. Chapter 7

Harry walked down the long and deserted corridors toward the Room of Requirement. His heart pounded in his chest. The closer he drew to the room the more certain he became that he would be caught. Usually he hid not only under his invisibility cloak but would be under the cover of darkness. He knew that Sirius would not arrive until eleven thirty, but he simply couldn't bear to be surrounded by others in the common room. He wanted time alone to think or just collapse.

Upon finding the Room of Requirement he swung open the door and quickly entered to find a cozy living-room-like space with overstuffed red sofas and a large fireplace. The ceiling was enchanted so that it gleamed with the stars of the night sky and the floor was carpeted with deep purple. He collapsed on the sofa closest to the fireplace and before he knew it he was asleep.

The feeling of slender calloused fingers lightly running through his hair pulled him from sleep. He sighed against the touch, unsure of whether he was dreaming or sleeping. The short jagged fingernails and feather light caresses betrayed their owner to the young man. He smiled slightly, his eyes not even opening. "Sirius."

"Hmm." He replied as he continued to card his fingers through the younger man's hair. "You let it grow." He murmured appreciatively.

"What?"

"Your hair, you took my suggestion, you let it grow."

Harry then sat up and looked into the sere eyes of the man sitting beside him. "How long have you been here?" He asked quietly.

"Not long." Sirius replied and kissed him gently on the lips, a chaste kiss filled with warmth. "I could have…stayed here…and watched you sleep…all night." Sirius said in between light kisses which he peppered from Harry's forehead to the last of the pallid neck exposed above the collar of his shirt.

"It would have been a wasted night." Harry drawled huskily as he deftly switched their positions so he straddled Sirius's thighs. Sirius watched as Harry's viridian eyes became dark with long suppressed desire and grinned wolfishly as he pushed Harry's outer robe off of his shoulders and flung it carelessly to the floor. Each watched the other intently, waiting to see who would begin and daring the other with their eyes. The air around them hung thick with tension, like the calm before the storm. The time for sweet and tender would come later.

It was not long before Harry grew impatient. He growled and brutally captured the other man's lips in a kiss that was just as much brutal as it was passionate. He buried his fists deep in the older man's long black hair, forcing him closer. Sirius then roughly grabbed Harry's slender wrists, forcing the smaller man beneath him and biting his neck hard enough to draw blood. He licked the wound.

_Mine._

Harry then tore his godfather's shirt from his body. Buttons flew. Sirius replied in kind only to start viciously attacking his chest with painfully arousing nips and bites, laving his nipples with his tongue and rolling them savagely between his teeth…

…

; )

Review Reply:

Huh: I'm not from England and a friend told me it meant "nerd". I guess they lied.


	8. Of Fuck Hair and Loveless Notes

"Where were you last night?" Ron asked Harry as they sat at breakfast. Neither noticed how tense Hermione suddenly became as she poured herself some water.

"Nowhere." Harry replied and Hermione immediately began to focus on anything else in the room.

"That's not what Oleander said." Ron insisted as he started on a boiled egg.

"Ron, who's Oleander?"

"Jaem Oleander, he and his girlfriend, Neriine Breckenridge, always sit behind us in Divination."

"Oh, right, _that_ Oleander." Harry answered dryly as he piled grilled tomatoes onto his plate.

"I went to bed at around eleven to find that you weren't there. This morning Oleander and I were talking and he told me that he saw you sneaking back into the common room at dawn looking like you were about to kick it. He was shagging his girlfriend in the prefect bathroom and was passing Gryffindor on his way back down to Hufflepuff when he saw you sneak into the common room. Where'd you go?"

"Who was shagging in the prefect bathroom?" A boy who looked to be no more then twelve interrupted.

"Oleander and Breckenridge." Ron replied nonchalantly. The boy's eyes went wide and he turned almost green before he abruptly walked away.

"Ron!" Hermione scolded. "Do you even know that boy?"

"Nope." Ron replied and Hermione groaned.

"Strange that he looked like he was going to be sick after you told him. Almost everyone who has not seen Jaem and Neriine all but going at it knows about them." Harry said and Ron shrugged.

"He probably thought that you meant Korrigan Breckinridge, the first year!" Hermione groaned.

"Jaem's not going to be too happy when this gets spread around." Ron mused tepidly as the boy who he had just talked to whispered something in a young Indian girl's ear.

"God Harry, leave the plate!" Hermione exclaimed. Whatever Harry had done the previous night, it had made him hungrier than anyone had ever seen him.

"Keep your eyes in Ron's plate." Harry said jokingly as he looked at the food near him on the table poured it onto his plate. After ravenously ingesting every last bite of it he started to take eggs from Ron's dish.

"Oi!" Ron exclaimed but Harry didn't pay him any mind.

"What on earth did you do last night? You're eating and you're happy. I never thought I'd live to see the day." Hermione said and Harry rolled his eyes.

"The question isn't what but who? He even _has_ fuck-hair." Ron exclaimed and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Ron, his hair _always _looks like that."

"So then judging by my hair I should have been happy and stuffing my face since the day I was born. Interesting theory Hermione." Harry replied and Ron snorted.

"But really, where were you?"

"I went for a walk, Hermione."

"All night long?"

"Yes, he was _walking_ all night long. _Walking._" Ron said with a grin.

"Ron, your maturity never ceases to astound me."

"Hermione, your meddlesome-ness never ceases to astound me."

"Would the both of you just stuff it." Harry said. It seemed as if he were attempting to sound angry or especially peeved but could not quite manage it. "I went for a walk and lost track of time. That's all."

_Bollocks._ Hermione thought as she nodded and took out her latest potions essay and began to scribble something in small, neat letters on the back.

_He snuck out last night. Was seen sneaking into Gryffindor tower at dawn. Won't say where he went. Claims he went on an 'all night walk'._

Review Replies:

Pops: Thanks! Glad you like my writing.

AN: Click the lovely, voluptuous, and entirely statuesque blue button. Throw me a frickin' bone here…


	9. Woolgathering: The Sequel

Professor Snape was grading essays during his free-period on Friday afternoon when he came across Hermione Granger's. It was beautifully written and all of the information was correct, as every essay she had ever written had been since her first one, when she was eleven, had been. It was then that he flipped it over and found her note on the back.

_He snuck out last night. Was seen sneaking into Gryffindor tower at dawn. Won't say where he went. Claims he went on an 'all night walk'._

Snape slammed his fist on his desk. "I knew that Potter was hiding something! This time you are mine Black! While Dumbledore cares little for _my_ immenent demise he will destroy you for endagering his _Golden Boy_!" He exclaimed and quickly scribbled beneath her note.

_Has he done this before?_

He then put it back in the pile of other essays. Hermione's class would arrive the following period and he would have his answer, not that he needed it as he was dead certain that the little nefarious sneak had done it a thousand times before. Snape spent the rest of his free period grading papers, and wondering if Dumbledore would brutally murder him or only fire him if he found out exactly what he was doing.

Sure enough the next period came and Hermione was the first one to arrive, however not early enough for the time alone they were allotted to have been of any real use. Minutes later Harry arrived in the midst of a small crowd of other students and sat to her left. Ten minutes after class had started Ron arrived and sat to her right.

"You will receive a week's worth of detention Mr. Weasley." Snape announced and Ron groaned. "That reminds me: Ms. Granger, would you be so kind?" He said dryly as he held up the stack of essays he had been grading earlier.

"I bet she would." Draco whispered to several of his friends and they snickered amongst themselves. No one noticed. Hermione quickly handed out all of the essays and then sat back her desk, her own in hand. She had felt extra writing on the back of her essay and knew that it must have been Snape's. Nevertheless she remained nonchalant as she placed it in her bag, only sneaking a peak at it as she reached in her bag for a quill.

_Has he done this before?_

She knew that Snape had been discretely watching her as she read it, for she could feel his piercing gaze resting squarely on her. She nodded offhandedly as she dipped her quill in ink. She heard her teacher let out a sigh and knew that he had interpreted her meaning correctly.

The class passed uneventfully. As they were leaving the seams of Hermione's school bag split and her things scattered all over the floor. All of the students stepped over her on their way out. The second Harry and Ron bent to help her Snape snapped at them.

"Hermione will gather her things alone, that way she might learn to get a bag of better quality."

"Her family's not rich. She couldn't afford a better one." Ron said angrily and Snape remained irksomely expressionless.

"Then why not borrow some money from our young Mr. Potter. I hear he's got more in gold and silver stashed away then the Queen of England."

They suddenly heard a snicker behind the door.

"You two," He said, pointing to Ron and Harry. "Kindly escort Mr. Malfoy to his next class, and tell him that if he is within my sight when I leave this room he will serve a month's worth of detention." Suddenly the pitter-patter of feet against stone began and swiftly grew quieter and quieter. Ron and Harry sighed and left, leaving Hermione to scramble for her things.

"So, he's done this before." Snape thought aloud as soon as the door had shut behind Harry and Ron. "How many times?"

"Three or four I think." Hermione said as she tapped her wand on the ripped material of her bag and it sewed itself back together and then leisurely began levitating her books inside.

"Who saw him?"

"Jaem Oleander."

"The Hufflepuff prefect?"

"Yes."

"Let me guess, he had been doing vile things with his little trollop of a girlfriend in the bathroom and had been sneaking back to his common room."

"More or less."

"Anything else?"

"He said that Harry looked awful, as if he were about to kick it."

"Well, whatever he did made him oddly happy today and spend all day yesterday lost in his own world, woolgathering like an imbecile."

"Woolgathering?" Hermione muttered absently.

"It means-"

"I know what it means." Hermione said with a strange smile and Snape looked at her questioningly. "I'm sorry, but if I do not leave now I will be late again."

"Very well." Snape replied. "Good day, Ms. Granger."

"Good day, Professor." Hermione said and left the room.

* * *

Author's Note/review replies:

Noc007: Thanks. I'm glad that you like this and I hope you read all 90-or-so chapters as this will probably be my last fanfic. Btw, that banner thing you made is pretty sweet. Thanks 4 reviewing!

Doralinda: Glad you like the story. I hope you still continue to read even if you don't like the pairing. ARTF doesn't have a very pairing driven plot anyway. It might seem like it at first but over all ARTF is about the psychological, physical, and large-scale effects of all of the facets of war- not some half-cocked cliched 100 chapter rant about starcrossed lovers. I didn't really put Sirius/Harry in here with any kind of agenda. You can take it any way you want. Thanks for reviewing! :)

Everyone who reviews gets a free imaginary blowjob...


	10. Smell This

"Mate, what happened? You look like someone tried to do you in!" Ron exclaimed as Harry walked into the common room and collapsed in a chair beside Ron.

"It's Snape. He's trying to kill me. I swear." Harry muttered exhaustedly as he threw his outer robe onto the ground in front of him and rested back in his chair.

"Greasy old git, probably gets a kick out of watching you suffer. If I were you I'd hex him- make him grow something out of his forehead, like a…a…" Ron then looked to see Harry sleeping soundly in the chair beside him. "Harry!" He cried and his friend awoke with a start, his green eyes glassy.

"Sorry Ron, I guess I better get up to the dormitories before you have to carry me up there."

"Bloody hell, like I'm carrying you anywhere!" Ron replied jokingly.

"Night Ron." Harry said with a tired smile.

"Night Harry." Ron replied and went back to watching the fire. About an hour later, as he himself got up and prepared to go toward the dormitories he noticed that Harry had left his robe behind. Upon picking it up he found that it smelled sweet and earthy and pleasant. He wondered what the scent was and immediately thought that it had to do with Harry's disappearance, and while he could not have even began to guess what scent was he knew someone who almost definitely would.

"Hermione!" Ron called from across the room.

"What is it Ron?" He looked in the direction he had heard her voice coming from and immediately saw her seated at one of the tables in the common room. She peered up at him from behind a pile of thick books.

"Come here!"

"Why don't _you_ come over _here_?"

"Hermione…"

"Ron…"

"Hermione…"

"_Ron_…"

"Hermione…"

"Oh all right." Hermione groaned as she got up from the table and grudgingly strode over to Ron. "What is it?"

"Smell this." He said as he held out Harry's cloak.

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Why do you want me to smell an old cloak, Ron?"

"Because it's Harry's." Ron stated as if this explained everything.

Hermione only looked at him strangely. "Ron, are you trying to tell me something?"

"Oh, bugger off." Ron groaned and Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Just, please." He said and watched as Hermione sat down beside him. She then took the cloak in her hands and did as Ron asked.

"What on earth?" Hermione asked as she smelled it again. "Are you sure that this is Harry's?"

"Yes. Do you know what that is?" Ron asked. "At first I thought it might be a spice, like cinnamon-"

"It's not." Hermione said. "What do you think; he snuck out because he felt the mad urge to spend the night whipping up baked confections?"

"Hardly." Ron replied. "And then I thought it might be some sort of tree and that he might not have been lying about the 'all night walk' thing-"

Hermione snorted. "Not even in the wizarding world is there a tree that smells like its trying to get a good shag."

"Well fine then, what do _you _think it is?"

"I have no idea." _But I know someone who might._ She smelled it again.

"Why are you two smelling that old cloak?" They looked to see Neville Longbottom standing beside them looking awfully confused.

"Oh," Ron began. "Because it's Harr-"

"Hardly worth mentioning." Hermione corrected and Neville only looked at them strangely.

"Goodnight then." He said and walked away toward the boys' dormitories, muttering under his breath about how strange they were.

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed as soon as Neville was out of earshot. "Do you think before you open your trap?"

"Not particularly." He replied nonchalantly and Hermione groaned.

"Well can you handle not telling Harry what's become of his cloak?"

"Why?"

"Because I've got a…friend who can tell me what this scent is."

"You do?"

"Yes.

"Who?"

"You wouldn't know him."

"That means that you don't want to tell me who it is."

"Aren't we clever?" Hermione replied caustically and Ron rolled his eyes. "Can you not tell Harry that I have his cloak?"

"I'll cover for you, but he'll get it back eventually right?"

"Of course!" Hermione declared emphatically. "I'm not a thief, I'm just borrowing it."

"Whatever." Ron replied and stalked off to the common room where he found Harry laying awake and staring at the ceiling. Unshed tears glistened in his eyes.

"You all right, mate?" Ron asked as he laid in the bed beside Harry's.

"Yeah, just lost something." He replied sadly

_Shite._ "What did you lose?"

"Nothing important, I'm sure it'll turn up eventually. 'Night Ron."

"Night Harry." Ron replied sheepishly as he crawled into his bed and drifted off to sleep.

--

Review Replies/ Author's Note:

No reviews this time. T-T. Some for this chapter? Pretty please?

Author's note: Well, here it is. Hooray for dramatic irony!


	11. Do Tell

On the morning of Saturday, January Twenty-Ninth Professor Severus Snape received the first owl he had received in many years. At first he assumed that someone was going to be playing a cruel joke on him but then he saw Hermione pretending to be asleep at the breakfast table, her head in the crook of her arm, looking up at him. He stowed it away in one of the pockets in his cloak.

"You see that?" Draco said to Miles Bletchley, another Slytherin who just happened to be sitting next to him.

"Yeah, Snape got a package, fascinating." Miles replied as he made a grab for the fried bread but was beaten out by a young girl with black hair.

"It's probably from his little girlfriend."

"Little girlfriend?" Miles replied. "He may be my favorite teacher but he looks like a dirty large bat that's been dipped head first in a vat of goat bile if you ask me. Stop talking out your arse."

"I would bet my soul that he and Granger are-"

"Yeah, but your soul's not worth much: five sickles- tops."

"Stuff yourself Bletchley. Look at them, how they are both trying so hard to look anywhere but in one another's general direction."

Miles then looked to see Hermione gazing off into space toward the castle entrance and Professor Snape hunched over his plate, incredibly interested in organizing the sections of sausage on his plate into piles of three.

"Just because you're right Draco doesn't mean you're right." Miles replied.

"Right about what?" A bulbous young Slytherin named Gyles Montague who was sitting across from Miles asked as he picked up one of the pitchers of milk and began to drink from it.

"Malfoy thinks that Granger and Snape are…you know." Miles said with a suggestive grin as his eyebrows twitched. Gyles rolled his eyes.

"As in the Granger who looks like she has some great furry animal attacking her head?" Gyles asked and the others around him smirked.

"Hey, it would fit. The greasy bat and the victim of an angry badger." Miles said and Draco rolled his eyes. The boy did never stop trying to be witty.

"That's not all, I saw him point his wand at her bag and make it to rip, so they could have a few stolen moments together after class yesterday." Draco said and the others gasped.

"Oh! Who's stealing moments, Draco?" Pansy Parkinson shrieked causing nearly everyone within earshot at the Slytherin table to look at Draco.

"No one, Pansy." Draco replied and she immediately rose from her spot at the table and ambled on over, almost begging him to tell her. In actuality he had every intention of telling her; she was one of the biggest gossips at Hogwarts.

"Granger and Snape." He whispered in her ear and Pansy squeaked again. "No! That is even better than what I heard about Jaem Oleander at dinner last night."

"Do tell." Draco replied tepidly and any other Slytherins within earshot listened as Pansy ran her mouth.

Meanwhile Snape felt as if someone was watching him and looked to see the piercing glance of Albus Dumbledore directed squarely at him as he hid the small package the owl had brought into one of his sleeves. He did not have to think twice about who it was from.

--

Review Replies/Author's Note:

HeatherLB: Possibly. lol

cookie monster: Yay! And, I want to know why you turned your back on cookies... You betrayed everything my child hood stood for!!

Naruka: During the first run of this (I rewrote alot of it and am reposting it now) there was this one reviewer who heckled me for being a pervert/teenager for about four chapters. I did have some fun bantering with her but it was annoying nevertheless. I'm glad you like this so much and I definitely will finish this. The only way I probably won't write more fics is if my book does as well as I hope (which let's face it- probably not). So yeah. Glad you enjoyed and thanks for reviewing.

AN: Yay! 3 reviews for one chapter! That never happens to me. If you read the first edition of this you know I do a group thank you every so often. Here's the first one.

Thank you...

To my reviewers- HeatherLB, KnowingDivine, DebsTheSlytherinSnapefan, huh?, Pops, Noc007, doralinda, cookie monster, and Naruka.

To the favoriters- puppyscreensavers, munchnzoey, brzoskwinia, blackkitsue, and DebsTheSlytherinSnapefan.

To the alerters- Alicia Spinet, Brea45, Destenys Angel Pyra, Draky, HELLSFLAME666, HeatherLB, KnowingDivine, Naruka, ThexBlackxRose, doralinda, gabicoesil, loveshouse, marble121, silverlilypetal, and zoebeansmommy.


	12. Sandalwood

The second breakfast ended Snape walked as casually as he could from the dining hall to his lab (being that he was infamous for stalking furiously about the hallways he did not have to retard his pace much), where he locked the door and carefully placed the small package onto his desk, thoroughly tested it for jinxes, hexes dark and otherwise, and potions; and then opened it with a quick spell. Inside a note rested atop a long yard of folded black material. It read:

_Dear professor, _

_This is the cloak he wore when he snuck out on Wednesday night. There is some aroma about it but I could not precisely place it and I figured that you would know what it is. It may give some clues as to where Harry was, who he was with, or if he is in any danger. _

Snape picked up the cloak and held it a safe distance away as he smelled it.

"Sandalwood." Snape stated as he then placed the cloak on the table and sniffed it again from a distance. "And a fair amount of sweat." He said again. "Someone is all over someone with an affinity for Sandalwood. I wonder who…" The Potions Master then remembered several Death eaters who had taken to covering themselves with disgustingly strong scent charms instead of bathing as they found it bothersome. Snape sighed tiredly as he took in the scent of the cloak again and realized that the scent was too pure to have been conjured.

He then poured and stirred madly at some green concoction in a cauldron for a good hour before taking a small piece of the cloak and throwing it in. The potion bubbled for several minutes as the piece of cloak sunk to the bottom and dissolved. A dark green smoke exploded from the cauldron and drifted away leaving still black water in its wake. Severus saw his own face staring back at him for a blink and watched in anticipation as his reflection transformed on the glassy surface of the potion.

The youthful face and pallid bare neck and shoulders of Harry Potter, basking in sheer rapture, and the weathered face and tattooed shoulders of Sirius Black, biting his lips as his bewitching silver eyes nearly rolled back into his head, appeared at the surface of the cauldron. Suddenly Harry's jaw grew slack and his eyes grew wide as he silently moaned, screamed, and pleaded. Sirius dug his teeth into Harry's shoulder, throwing his raven hair behind him, as his body quaked. Sweat glistened on their bodies.

As they both fell from the height of orgasm they held one another. Sirius's hands gently stroked Harry's hair as they shared wet and clumsy kisses, half smiling through them. Harry suddenly latched onto his godfather's lower lip, sucking on it languidly. He barely drew away before his lips moved with slow unfocused speech.

_I love you Sirius Black._

While his words were not audible Snape could read them both on Harry's lips and in his eyes. The older man only kissed him again and the image faded away. Snape let out a cry as he flung the cauldron across the room, the potion inside spraying haphazardly as the cauldron flew and landed with a clang against the opposite wall.

An animalistic snarl laced with all of the loathing and revulsion in the world escaped Severus when suddenly he felt as if his hand was on fire. He looked down to see that some of the potion had splattered on his hand and was quickly being absorbed into his skin. He attempted to quickly race across his lab, in order to apply Chervil salve to the affected area, but only managed to make it about halfway before vomiting all of the floor and collapsing in it.

It was near lunch when he regained consciousness but he was too weak to move as contact with what he had brewed could make a man ill for days. It was not long before he registered the scent of old vomit.

_I am a death eater! Or a spy? Or a double agent...or something of that nature...! I should know better then to just flail my arms about as if I am mentally challenged while...doing...what the fuck was I doing? Was I...ummm...my hand hurts. Did I burn it? Did I stick it somewhere untoward? It must have been Weasely! He probably attacked me with one of his muggle weapons! Ruddy ginger bastard making me hurt my hand... _

His self-depracating inner diatriabe was tossed about in the chaos caused by the after effects of his potion accident. Half way through it he could have sworn he was yelling at someone else; someone whose name he had never heard before. When he became cognizant of this a whole new circuitous barrage of self-loathing emanated from his lips in half-moaned burbles.

"Severus?"

_McGonagall._

"Severus! Are you well?"

Snape could not answer. He was not sure that he wanted to. He only made a small sound in the back of his throat, which was almost entirely muffled by the cold stone floor.

_Yes, I've been lying prone on the floor for some undisclosed period of time because I am __**well**__. Stupid bint._

"Do you need to go to the hospital wing?"

_No, I need one of those things the immensely disturbed muggels have. What are they called? _

"Severus!"

_Abolitionist, anarchist…abortionist? _

"Oh dear! I'll get you help straight away!"

_No, the last thing I need is an abortionist; I think I remember them being...something or other… I bet the ginger bastard would know... _

"Don't you worry! I'll be right back!"

_Rapist, theorist, thera…therapist! Yes! That's it! Dear god, I either need a therapist or to have both of my eyes removed with a skewer… _

…

…

…

_Whatever happened to McGonagall? _

"Poppy! Poppy!" McGonagall cried as she rushed into the hospital wing.

"Minerva?" Poppy said as she poured something thick and bright yellow into a glass for Fred Weasley, who had two large purple horns protruding from his scalp.

"Oh my! Poppy, Poppy we must hurry!"

"Minerva, what has happened?"

"Severus has attempted suicide!" Madame Pomfrey only blinked. Several of the students in the healing wing looked about ready to clap.

"No!" Fred gasped, obviously upset. Everyone in the healing wing looked at him strangely. "Now I owe George twenty galleons!"

McGonagall sighed with disgust. "Come, he drank something but vomited it up and it is all over his floor.

Minutes later the two witches returned to find Snape heaving all over the floor. As soon as he finished Madame Pomfrey bent down beside him.

"Severus."

"Get L-" He began.

"Severus?"

"Lu…"

"Poppy, he's delirious. I don't think-"

"Get…Lupin." He said and fell unconscious.

Author's Note/ Review Replies

I discovered two of the greatest songs ever this week. The Voice by Celtic Woman and Inside the Fire by Disturbed. I fell in love with them. The music video for Inside the Fire is amazing (which is suprising considering the majority of their videos aren't really anything special). I'm teaching myself to sing The Voice for a performing arts camp I'm going to. It's beautiful. Go listen to it. NOW!

No reviews again? Come on guys. From the number of hits I'm getting people are definitely reading. Throw me a frickin bone here.


	13. Little Prongs and Padfoot

Snape opened his eyes to find Dumbledore standing by his bed.

"See something that you did not wish to see, Severus?"

Snape nearly jumped out of the bed. "Headmaster, I…I…"

"You requested that Remus Lupin be brought to you?"

"Yes." Snape replied quietly.

"I will fetch him, then." Dumbledore replied and left the private area of the healing wing in which Snape rested. Minutes later Remus arrived. Snape could see his golden eyes glowing in the dark and cast a silencing charm.

"This is rather unexpected." Remus said as he stood beside the other man's bed.

"You disgust me." Snape spat and Remus sighed tiredly, completely unaffected.

"Look, if you only called me here because you are afraid that you are going to die and couldn't bear to go without insulting a marauder because we used to tease you almost twenty years ago, and are settling for me because Padfoot or Prongs can't be here, tell me so I can let you get it out of your warped system and be on my way."

"I am not dying, Remus. I just have to hear it from you."

"Hear what, Snape?" Lupin asked somewhat impatiently, crossing his arms and letting out an annoyed sigh.

"Tell me how long."

Remus found himself sorely tempted to say "ten inches" but refrained as he had a nagging suspicion that his levity would not go over well. "Can you speak plainly? I haven't got all night to waste being taunted by a bitter old bastard."

"How long have you known about them?"

"Known about who you big daft fuckwit?" Lupin spat.

"Little Prongs and Padfoot."

"What the hell are you talking about Snape?"

"Padfoot was missing on Wednesday night wasn't he?"

"Look, if you are implying what I think you are implying-"

"Where did he say he went, Remus?"

"Snape, I swear, I will fucking shove my foot so far up your arse that you'll be chewing on my-"

"Where, Remus?"

"He said that he went for a walk in his animagus form!"

"Fond of sandalwood is he?" Snape said after a long while.

Remus became pale. "Yes, ever since we were kids! But how could you-"

"Whilst teaching Harry Occlumency lessons I noticed that every time I came across a memory of Padfoot he would panic. Thinking that he may have done something to betray us and that Harry was protecting him (and thereby putting all of us and our cause in jeopardy) I set out on an unobtrusive way to find out what was really going on with the aid of one of his friends who was concerned due to his strange behavior.

'After noticing how strangely the cloak he wore smelled after his wild night this friend brought it to me, hoping that I could recognize the scent and thereby see if it could give me any idea as to where young Mr. Potter might have slipped off to; and I did recognize the scent on the cloak: sandalwood and sweat, Remus."

Lupin groaned.

"I then made a potion to see whose sweat stained the cloak and do you know what I saw, Remus?"

"Please don't tell me that he-"

"I saw his best friend's son, his fifteen year old godchild, writhing beneath him as he took him like a woman on top of that cloak."

"Dear god!" Remus cried and fled the room.

Snape lay back in his bed, feeling utterly low yet marginally pleased with himself. Suddenly he heard soft sobs coming from the corner of the room.

"Who's there?" He called.

No answer.

"I know that you're there. I can hear you. Now if you don't reveal yourself I will call for Madame Pomfrey and there will be trouble for you."

"It's me." A small sniffling voice answered from the dark.

--

hi-purr: Lol. Thanks. Every story needs some comic relief unless you want your readers borderline-suicidal by the end. Thanks for the review!

AN: Please review! Pretty please! When I get no reviews for a chapter it makes me a sad panda...


	14. Chapter 14

_Hermione? Oh god._

"You shouldn't be here."

"Do you think I do not know that? What happened to me being brilliant beyond my years and incredibly perceptive?" She said quietly, even though he could hear her crying.

Snape smiled despite himself when suddenly the door opened and light was shed on the room. Madame Pomfrey's head protruded into the room. Hermione on the other hand was nowhere to be seen.

_My my, she must have stolen Potter's invisibility cloak. Isn't someone devious? _

"Are you all right Severus?" Madame Pomfrey chirped. "Who were you yelling at?"

Severus eyed the empty corner he was certain Hermione was standing in and then Madame Pomfrey.

"It's nothing. I think I'm slightly disoriented from the elixir you gave me to settle my stomach." He said and Madame Pomfrey nodded before shutting the door. As soon as the sound of her footsteps disappeared Hermione began to speak again.

"You can't tell."

"What?"

"Harry has enough to deal with, without this getting out."

"Hermione-"

"Believe me, I am just as utterly disgusted as you, but you cannot tell anyone."

"Hermione, I was not planning on it."

"Thank god! It would destroy Harry!" Hermione exclaimed. There was a long pause before she spoke again. "Is it true that you really tried to kill yourself?" She asked. Her voice was closer and she was whispering, but she still had not taken off the cloak.

"No." Snape replied. "After seeing what you no doubt heard me describe so vividly to Lupin I…I…"

"Lost it." Hermione added and Snape nodded. They stood in silence for several long minutes until Snape finally spoke. "But, why did you really come?"

"Well, you see, professor, if I get that cloak back to Harry, then I technically didn't steal it. All though I doubt that you know where it is now." Hermione replied. Snape could tell by her voice that she had stopped crying.

"I see the same principal applies to his invisibility cloak."

"Of course, you learn quickly professor."

"You should have been in Slytherin."

"I do not know whether to be insulted or flattered."

Snape replied with a slight smirk and a half-hearted head shake and all was silent. The Potions Master had begun to wonder if she had left when suddenly he felt her hand around his.

"Hermione what-" He stopped himself, realizing that she had only touched his hand briefly to leave a small, folded piece of parchment in his palm. "What is this?"

"My letter of resignation." Hermione said and just as Snape was about to ask what she had meant the door swung open slightly and closed. He only shook his head, slid the note up his sleeve, and drifted off to sleep.

Hermione returned to the Gryffindor common room to find it empty. She took off the invisibility cloak and placed it under her arm.

"Where have you been?" Harry's angry voice cut through the silent common room. Hermione looked to see him glaring at her from beside one of the chairs by the fire. She strode over to him.

"I went for a walk." She replied coldly and dropped the invisibility cloak at his feet before continuing on her way to the stairs which led to the girls' dormitories.

RR: animesnape21: Glad you think so. Thanks for the review!

AN: Well, here's another one. Hoped that you enjoyed it. Please review. It would make me happeh!!


	15. Just Harry

Remus arrived at Number 12 Grimmauld place to find Sirius curled up by the fire. He immediately marched over to him and pulled him up by the collar of his shirt. Sirius only sleepily looked up at him.

"Remus-"Sirius began and was interrupted when the other man punched him square in the jaw.

"What the fuck Remus?" Sirius asked as he massaged his jaw.

"How could you do this to James, Sirius?"

Sirius's eyes automatically became wide as he realized what exactly Lupin was referring to. He had so much to say. A million things raced through his mind however Sirius could find absolutely no way to vocalize them. Shock, fear of the rejection and judgment he read so clearly in his long time friend's honey colored eyes, and worry for both himself and his young lover coursed through him. "Fuck."

"How could you do this to Harry, Sirius?"

"Remus, please-"

"He's just a boy! You're almost forty!"

"He is not a child."

"Maybe not, but he is still not a man! He's fifteen! And you are still almost fucking forty!"

"I know." Sirius replied. "It just, it just doesn't change the way I feel and I never would never have even considered it if…if…"

"Don't tell me that your going to try and use the 'but he started it' excuse?"

"As true as that may be, I only have one reason."

"I think I am going to be sick."

"Remus, you don't understand!"

"Oh! Don't I? Infuckingcredible! I would love to hear how you justify diddling your fifteen year old godson!"

"I am not _diddling _Harry!"

"Oh! I'm sorry! _Making love_!" Remus spat. "I would love to hear how you justify _making love _with your fifteen year old godson!"

"He has never known love, Remus. He spent the first eleven years of his life being shit on by Lilly's bitch of a sister and her bulbous sodding bastard of a husband and son. And all because his godfather, the one man who could have saved him from all of that was locked away in Azkaban! Life has not been kind to him and after all of the bad that has happened to him, he may not even live to see nineteen! I will not let him die without knowing some happiness. I love him Remus, even more than he loves me, and let it all be damned to hell if you'll take him from me, if anyone will take him from me!"

"You were with him last Wednesday night weren't you?" Remus asked as he looked at the man he had known since he was a boy.

"Yes, and the third Wednesday of every month since September."

"Dear God. How the fuck did this happen?"

"One day over the summer he came-"

"It was a rhetorical question you fucking…fucking… I could just kill you! I don't really want to bloody know the details of how you seduced our belated best friend's teenage son!" Remus screamed and then looked at the fireplace. "Fucking Snape." He muttered after a while.

"What do you mean by…Snape told you!?"

"Yes."

"Oh my fucking god! He's always had it in for me. I'm dead! How the fuck did he even find out?"

"Not necessarily." Remus spat. "Not that you don't deserve to have your sick fucking arse shipped back off to Azkaban, but if he told anyone anything about you it would mean that he had information on a dangerous fugitive- a wanted man- and kept it from the ministry. As much as he would probably love to see you get in loads of trouble and rot in Azkaban until judgment day, it would risk too much.

'And apparently the greasy git had one of Harry's friends spy on him. After noticing the cloak that you fucked him on smelled different said friend took it to him to analyze. He poured some potion on it and apparently Snape got to watch your best friend's son, your fifteen year old godchild, writhing beneath you as you rammed into him like some sort of fucking animal on top of that cloak, which smelled of sweat and the sandalwood you practically bathe in."

"I love him-"

"He's fucking Harry Potter! He looks exactly like James, like Prongs, like Jamie! How could you-"

"When you look at him you might see James', but when I look at him I see-"

"A good fuck?"

"No, Harry. Not Jamie and not Jamie's son. Not _the _Harry Potter and not some freak to be poked at and judged by assholes like you, just Harry."

"Yeah, well I see a child who's being abused by some mad old depraved sodding cunt who must have forgotten a great fucking bit in Azkaban."

"Remus-" Sirius began and the man in question rose and walked towards the door of the room.

"Black," He said icily as he reached the doorway, not even bothering to turn around. "Don't talk to me." With that Remus quitted the room.

* * *

animesnape21: Yeah. I'm having the same problem. I found a good one called "Paradox of Existance" a while ago if you want the link. There's also some really good stuff on hpfandom.

doralinda: Awesome. I wrote this specifically so you can't guess the plot of the entire thing from start to finish. There's just too many of those.


	16. The Savior of the Known World's Great Di

"Siri, I am so sorry. It's all my fault." Harry said as they lay entwined on one of the large duvets which the Room of Requirement had produced a month later. Harry lay with his back against Sirius' chest as the older man held him and stroked his hair and side lovingly.

"Ssh, don't say that. It couldn't possibly be all your fault." Sirius said as he pressed his lips lightly against Harry's neck.

"Yes, it is. Lupin would not hate you if it weren't for me."

"You make your own bed and you lay in it, Harry. It is just as much my fault as it is yours. It's even his fault for being such a bastard! Merlin, you'd think a bloke who got attacked by a fucking werewolf would be a little cooler."

"I suppose so." Harry replied. "Do you think he would have taken it better if he heard it from us instead of from Snivellus?"

"Possibly, all though he's too busy thinking I'm a great dirty brute at the moment to realize that he should also be angry at the fact that he heard it from the Greasy Git instead of us." Sirius sighed and they lay in a comfortable silence for several minutes before Harry spoke again.

"I almost told him once." He whispered. "That night after I first told you that I loved you and you bolted from 12 Grimmauld Place. I was crying and Remus was trying to comfort me. I nearly told him what we had been doing whenever we could get a second alone for weeks. Do you think I should have?"

"Selfishly, no." Sirius replied and Harry turned so they lay face to face, and looked at him questioningly with a raised eyebrow. "He would have never let us be alone again and….dear god, I can't believe I'm saying this…there were weeks left before you left for school."

Harry hit his godfather lightly in the head and pretended to scold him as he clicked his tongue and shook his head. "My, my, you are a great dirty brute!"

"But I'm your great dirty brute." Sirius pointed out with a slight grin and Harry rolled his eyes and began to slowly yet deftly undo the buttons on Sirius' shirt.

"Harry Potter, Savior of the Known World's, great dirty brute, eh?" He said as he finished with the buttons and began to move his hands up and down the other man's taut chest and stomach, relishing the feel of his warm skin. His eyes became dark as Sirius' breath hitched. Harry could feel the older man's heart beating in his chest, against his palms. "I suppose that's got to count for something." Harry purred as he brazenly pulled Sirius' belt from its loops and tossed it aside. It clanked against the floor.

"It counts for everything." Sirius growled as he flipped Harry onto his back, crawled on top of him, and began undressing him as he viciously teased him. After finally getting the younger man completely naked Sirius stopped to admire his work.

Beneath him lay Harry, panting and writhing, his cheeks flushed, and his lips pink and swollen. Crimson bloomed in blotches down his neck and chest, vividly contrasting against his incandescent skin, where Sirius had marked him. His hands fisted the fabric of the crimson duvet beneath them as he fought not to grab at his almost painfully hardened arousal, swollen and jutting from thick sable curls. Almost forgetting himself in the moment, he leaned down to wipe a sweat soaked lock of dark hair from Harry's forehead.

"_Sirius…_" Harry groaned, protesting the lack of attention and bringing Sirius back to reality. After noticing the state Harry was in Sirius smirked wickedly and looked Harry squarely in the eyes as he ghosted kisses along his stomach. In one decisive movement he engulfed the young man's rigid tumescence.

Author's Note/Review Replies:

Doralinda: Glad you think so. It took me a good few hours to get it right as I'm tired of people writing remus as if he's some kind of doormat unless the full moon's coming up. I totally agree with you.

animesnape21: FFnet doesn't allow linking so just type in Paradox of Existence by Dragonlight in google and it should be the first thing that comes up. Sorry. It's really a brilliant fic, though. I'm picky as hell and I really liked it.

AN: Please Review! It would make me so happy. Oh, I'm taking a poll. How many of you would be totally squicked by full blown Harry on Sirius, Sirius on Harry sex? How many of you would find yourselves oddly entertained or turned on? How many of you are curious to see how I'd write it and how I would make it fit? How many of you don't care? Let me know within the next three or four chapters so I can adjust the plot accordingly.

, Thank You

The Management


	17. Speaking of Mutts

Harry awoke the next morning with Sirius' arms wrapped around him and their legs entwined. He wondered how long Sirius had been awake. How long he had been stroking his hair? Lightly kissing the crook of his neck?

"It will be dawn soon." Sirius said vacantly as he tightened his embrace slightly.

"I know." Harry replied as he reached for Sirius' large hands and held them.

"I, being the responsible adult-"

"Oh, stuff it, Siri. I've met three year olds that are more responsible than you." Harry said with a slight grin.

"Aren't you just _sweet_?"

"So I've been told." Harry replied and they both suddenly became silent, only looking at one another before Harry spoke again.

"I've got to go Sirius."

"I know." Sirius said sadly and let his arms fall slack so the young man could get up and get dressed. Sirius did the same. After they had finished dressing they both stood and looked at one another as if trying to memorize every shadow and line that fell before them. Sirius then leaned down and fixed Harry's collar, purposefully brushing his neck with his fingers far more than necessary.

"Thank you." Harry said with a shy smile as he ran his hands through his hair.

"Any time." Sirius said quietly and kissed him once more. Harry then departed from the Room of Requirement.

Beneath his invisibility cloak he crept to the Gryffindor common room. He entered to find Hermione standing by the fire looking squarely at the threshold where he stood.

"I know that you're there Harry so you can just come right on out." She said angrily. Harry sighed and pulled off the cloak.

"Talking to me again, are we?" Harry spat. Hermione hadn't spoken to him in almost a month and it seemed that she had most likely waited down in the common room all night so she could accost him.

"No, I'm doing this for Ron. I would be perfectly happy to never talk to you again."

"Can you at least tell me what I did to-"

"You know damn well what you did!"

"No, if I knew I wouldn't be asking."

"You want to….really…after all this time you have absolutely NO IDEA!? Are you that much of a space case!?"

"Look, stop being so dramatic and tell me what you waited down here all night to tell me." Harry said, not even yelling back. He was too exhausted and still a bit lethargic and happy from his night with Sirius.

"I know!" Hermione screamed. "I know about all of it! You're both fucking sick!"

"Yeah, well at least I'm not fucking the brains out of The Greasy Git."

"Oh, and letting some old mangy mut fuck you up the arse is much better!?"

"You're not even denying it! If you ask me you're fucking sick!"

"No one did, you fucking cock sucker! No one gives a rat's arse what you fucking think!"

"You're one to speak of muts! Ignorant bitch!"

Hermione gasped and only stared at Harry open mouthed. Tears began to form in the corners of her eyes.

"Fucking hell, Granger." Harry muttered angrily and started to walk toward the boy's dormitories. Crowds had gathered on both of the staircases.

"Harry…" She began. "Harry! Ron's in the hospital wing." She said quickly and bolted up the staircase to the girl's dormitories, sobbing. People practically dove out of their way, some even leapt off of the staircases, as they both stormed up them.

--

Review Replies/Author's Note:

animesnape21: No prob. What do you think of it? And thanks.

AN: Review please.


	18. Oleander's Hex

Later that day, during lunch, Harry went to visit Ron in the hospital wing to find him restless and abruptly changing color.

"Merlin!" Harry gasped as Ron turned a lovely shade of yellow, then light green, and then dark brown. "What happened?"

"Oleander hexed me!" Ron exclaimed as he looked at his hand and watched it turn from dark brown to neon pink and groaned.

"Oleander?"

"Jaem Oleander."

"Oh right, _that _Oleander." Harry said, holding back laughter as Ron turned violet.

"This isn't funny, Harry!"

"Why did he hex you?" Harry asked, abruptly speaking hoping that if he could keep himself occupied he wouldn't laugh.

"Do you not remember how I accidentally started that rumor of him shagging that little first year girl in the prefect bathroom?"

"Yeah, Breckenridge, right?"

"Yeah, apparently he was just going to let it go, but after Neriine broke up with him over it he was out for blood and decided to go and kill the bloke who started it. Pomfrey said it will wear off in a day or two though-" Ron burped as he changed from a light purple to crimson. "Not again!" He moaned and Harry began to cackle insanely. Ron growled at him.

"S…sor…sorry." Harry finally gasped out as he managed to stop laughing.

"I heard that you and Hermione had a fight this morning."

"Does nothing stay secret in this place?"

"Not when you yell it in the middle of the bloody common room at six in the morning. I heard that you made her cry."

"Ron, please, let me explain. About the whole mut thing-"

"Good for you. She deserved it. She's been being a dirty bitch to you for weeks. It was about time you set her straight."

"You really think so?"

"Absolutely! I mean, we all know that you're not really some kind of Slytherin bigot and that she deserved a good kick in the arse. All though I can understand why she's been so mental lately, I don't think she should have taken it out on you like that."

"What do you mean?"

"Are you dead serious? Mate, you're as spacey as Luna Lovegood!"

"Hey, don't mess with Luna, man." Harry said jokingly but Ron would have none of his levity and only looked at him and shook his head.

"No, I think you have invented a new level spacey-ness. Your mind is like on a constant vacation."

"It is not-"Harry began but realized that what Ron had said was completely true. "All right, so maybe I have been a little distracted lately."

Ron snorted and turned grey. "Oh yeah, just a bit. It's hardly noticeable, really." He said and Harry rolled his eyes.

"And Hermione tells me that I have the emotional range of a teaspoon, honestly." Ron sighed. "Wouldn't you be a bit on edge if the whole school thought that you were…you know…where the Greasy Git dips his wick, if you know what I mean?"

Harry suddenly turned almost as green as Ron. "Come on Ron, the whole school can't possibly think that."

"Harry, yesterday afternoon Malfoy charmed a wedding cake. It had little figurines of Snape and Hermione dry humping each other on top of it and he gave it to her by the lake, in front of almost the entire Slytherin house! They all sang some kind of fucked up rendition of _Here comes the bride_!"

"Malfoy is a right bastard, I hate him, and that was a totally shit thing to do…but…" Harry trailed off as he laughed and Ron sighed.

"Harry, you were standing right there when it happened."

"I was?" Harry muttered, obviously having no recollection of it. Ron looked concerned as he turned bright orange.

"Listen, I'm not going to nag you about it like Hermione does, but I'm worried as all hell about you; Most of the time if someone asked you what your name was you'd be too zonked to say _Harry Potter_. What's going on with you?"

At that moment Harry made a decision. "I promise you I'll tell you, it's just, I'd rather do it in a place where…" Harry whispered and then looked discretely to his left and right and Ron nodded.

"Well in other news," Ron began nonchalantly, "Apparently since their first year Fred and George have had this bet. George bet twenty galleons that Snape would at least attempt suicide before they left. So, after it appeared that Snape killed himself Fred handed over the galleons and George spent fifteen paying back people he had either lost bets to or borrowed money from and with the rest of it he did only Merlin knows what. But after we found out that Snape had not actually tried to off himself Fred wanted his money back. Since George obviously could not pay him back, he has to go around dressed as a girl for a month."

"But how did Fred come up with twenty galleons in the first place?"

"Probably from selling contraband he nicked from Filch's office and those awful candies they make that taste like dead baby and whale penis."

Harry shook his head and Madame Pomfrey came in and told him that he had better leave for class or he would be late. Harry nodded and grabbed his bag.

"Thanks Ron." He said with a smile and Ron nodded.

"Don't mention it mate."

With that Harry left the healing wing.

* * *

Please review!


	19. Owlry

After barely eating Harry left dinner early for a quick trip to the owlry before his Occlumency lesson. He had sent his letter and was leaving when he heard soft sobbing coming from one of the corners of the room.

"Hello, are you all right?" He asked, looking to where he thought he heard the sobbing from only to find no one there.

There was no reply, and only more muffled sobbing. He took a step closer into the dark.

"Is anyone there?" He asked again and this time reached out his hand to feel something hard covered in cloth against his palm.

"All right, you caught me." Hermione's voice came through her sobs as she pulled off the cloak. Harry wanted to be angry at her for insulting him and his godfather, treating him so coldly the past month and also stealing his invisibility cloak on several occasions, but one look at her and he couldn't find it in his to yell. Her bottom lip was split from worrying at it and her eyes were red and swollen. Tears streamed down her ashen cheeks and her chest heaved as she fought to regain her breath.

He sat on the floor beside her and held her. She tensed for a second before collapsing against him and starting to bawl.

"I'm…s…so…sorry." She apologized over and over again through her tears. Harry assured her that it was all right. "It's just…so hard and…Snape…you…me…bastard Malfoy…Sirius…wedding cake!" She muttered incoherently.

"I know." Harry said, her babble making almost perfect sense to him. "I know."

After Hermione had calmed down she told him the entire story (Harry knew that she was telling the truth for it matched up with the one Sirius had told him in quite a few places). She had honestly told him that what she had done had stemmed as much from selfish curiosity as it did from how much he had scared and worried her.

"Letter of resignation, eh? I wouldn't say that you two are secret lovers or anything, but you were definitely flirting." Harry said quietly and Hermione stared at him open mouthed. She could not believe that he wasn't furious. He had in fact tried to make a joke of it.

"We were not!" She finally blurted.

"So, you mean, you touched him and not one part of you started to rot or fell off afterwards? Interesting." He said and they sat in silence until Hermione spoke again.

"Do you hate me?" She asked after she had finished and Harry shook his head.

"If I would have just told you, all of this could have been avoided." He said. "And besides, you are already paying for going behind my back and stealing my things it seems, Mrs. Severus Snape."

Hermione groaned. "If we were not supposedly having a moment I would slap you."

Harry smiled cheekily. "Moments aren't really one of my strong suits."

"But, why didn't you just tell me? Does Ron know?"

"No, but the first chance I get I'm going to tell him. And I didn't tell you because I didn't know how you would react when you found out that I was _letting my pouf godfather fuck me up the arse_." He said. Hermione recognized those words and cringed. "I mean, Remus and Siri are best mates, they are all that's really left of the Marauders, and now Remus won't as much as look at him and told him that he deserves to go back to Azkaban!"

Despite it all Hermione smiled slightly.

"What?" Harry asked as he looked at his suddenly grinning friend.

"You called him Siri."

Harry blushed slightly, but not enough for Hermione to be able to discern it in the dim light.

"Can you do something for me?" She said and Harry nodded. "Don't tell Professor Snape that I told you about what we did." She finished imploringly and Harry growled under his breath.

"Why, afraid he won't love you anymore?" He muttered bitterly, the compassion which had assuaged his anger quickly turned to dust. "Whose side are you on, anyway?"

"I…I don't know!" She gasped, upset once more.

"Well let me know when you figure it out." Harry growled and stomped out of the owlry. Hermione began to cry again.

"Bloody bitch made me miss my Occlumency lesson." He grumbled as he stormed back down to the common room. "Snape's going to kill me."

Review Replies/Author's Note

Doralinda: Sorry. I was in a dramatic mood and it got the better of me I guess. Thanks for continuing reading and reviewing.

An: Review please!


	20. Remorse

Due to complications Ron's stay in the infirmary turned from one or two days tops to him still laying there changing color rapidly with no cure in sight (other than to let it run its course) on Thursday. After skipping dinner and paying Ron a quick visit Harry made his way to his Occlumency lesson, dreading every minute of it. Snape had been giving him death glares all week, and he knew that the man was only waiting for their first minute alone to positively flay him.

"I can't believe that he knows." Harry muttered as he stood by the door of the potion's classroom. He hoped that dirty looks would be the extent of Snape's wrath, but he doubted it. After what Snape had so viciously done to Remus, Harry wondered if the man had a soul, let alone a heart.

"Come in Mr. Potter."

Harry ran his hands through his hair and moaned miserably before pushing the door open and entering the room. Snape was standing leaning against the far wall, his hands in his pockets. He looked the part of something dark and evil as his obsidian eyes glittered in the low light.

"You missed your last lesson, Potter. Any…particular reason?" As Snape asked his lips twitched.

"Not the reason your thinking _professor_." Harry replied just as dryly and Snape suddenly looked sick. Harry grinned evilly. "If only." He added bitterly and Snape seemed about to wretch.

"Then where were you _Potter_?" Snape said after he recovered from the sudden mental pictures which plagued him.

"It turns out being Mrs. Severus Snape isn't turning out as well as one might have thought for Hermione. She was hiding in the owlry crying her eyes out-" Harry stopped at seeing how Snape suddenly looked incredibly guilty. He almost could not believe it. In his total shock his voice lost all of its venom, being that he was not genuinely sarcastic or mentally quick."…and I was comforting her."

Harry stared in disbelief at Snape, never seeing him show anything but his usual dry and distant disdain. There was remorse in his eyes. He looked almost vulnerable. "Very well then." He said quietly.

"You mean, you're not going to give me any deten-"

"Cease your jabbering, Potter." Snape said quietly. "Now resist." The potion's master's voice gained power as he began his mental assault on Harry, who resisted fully.

"Good." Snape said. "Now the next part of your training begins on Monday. Get out."

Harry was not about to argue with Snape. While he did wonder why the lesson had been cut so short his curiosity did not outweigh his desire to get as far away from Snape as possible. He only nodded and fled. On the way back to the common room he encountered Malfoy, who was loitering in the hallway with a small group.

"Interesting friends you've chosen Potter." Malfoy said and the others in the group sniggered.

"Stuff yourself Malfoy, I'm not in the mood." Harry said as he attempted to walk past them and the others "oooh-ed" mockingly.

"Ron Weasley the amazing color-changing dipstick, _The Famous_ Harry Potter, and Snape's little mudblood slut: How quaint." Malfoy said, not letting Harry simply walk away.

"I swear Malfoy-"

Harry was cut off as suddenly he found Draco standing for too close to him for comfort, his lips just shy of being pressed against his ear. "Oh, and what is this I hear about your pouf godfather?" He whispered maliciously and Harry let out a furious growl so uncharacteristic of himself that nearly every Slytherin in the corridor blanched. He dug the point of his wand into the young Malfoy's pallid throat as he leaned in, in the same manner as Draco had only seconds before.

"When I kill Voldemort," He whispered in the other boy's ear, his voice pure venom. "My _pouf _godfather and I will see to it that you and your _death eater_ father are the first to pay for all you have done." He threatened and removed his wand before stalking away. Draco crumbled to the ground; a pile of bloodless and ungainly cowardice.

"Don't you walk away from me Potter!" Malfoy hissed as he stood. Harry ignored him. This enraged Malfoy so much that he hexed Harry even as his back was turned. Being that Harry had silently shielded himself as he walked away, knowing that Malfoy did not do anything fairly, he walked away unaffected.

Upon entering the common room he found Hermione sitting alone at one of the tables feverishly working. For the most part she was being ignored; however sitting across the room on one of the divans was a group of girls discretely pointing and mocking her. Hermione had undoubtedly noticed, as she appeared to be holding back tears as she worked. Without saying a word to her he stormed up the stairs to his dorm room where he fell into a troubled sleep.

Author's Note/Review Replies:

KatAndMonkey: Yeah. Pretty much. He's always annoyed me actually. The way Rowling wrote him seemed almost unnatural in spots. Thanks for the review!

An: Review please! Oh, and I saw Jethro Tull's 40th anniversary concert last night! It was awesome!!


	21. Chapter 21

On Sunday Ron was finally released. Oleander's hex had run its course and he had gone almost six hours without turning any odd colors or burping anymore than was natural. He had gratefully returned to the common room in the afternoon to find it empty with the exception of Hermione who was deeply engrossed in work.

"Hermione!" he called happily from the threshold and almost gasped when he looked up. She was wan and gaunt and there were dark circles under her eyes. In short, she looked like hell.

"Hello Ron." She said with an obviously forced smile. She still scribbled ferociously at a piece of parchment as she spoke. "I'm so glad that you're well."

He walked over the table and sat down beside her. "So, what are you working on?"

"Defense Against the Dark Arts essay on Incubi." She replied.

"Incubi? I don't remember learning anything about Incubi."

"It's an extra credit assignment." Hermione replied and Ron sighed.

"Extra credit? But right now you are one of the only people who can stay awake long enough in that class to pass! Umbridge bitch…"

"It couldn't hurt." Hermione replied flatly and Ron looked out the window, gazing longingly into the sunshine.

"Do you know where Harry is?" He asked and Hermione's face suddenly grew grim and bitter. Her face reminded him of the picture of the criminally insane Bellatrix Lestrange he had seen in the Daily Prophet a while ago.

"Why would I know where he is?" She spat and then muttered. "Bloody fucking poufter." Ron only looked at her strangely.

"_What_?"

"Nothing." She muttered and Ron sat by her for a few minutes before walking out of the common room to find Harry. In his opinion Hermione had always been rather moody.

_She is a girl after all_. He had told himself in the past on the numerous occasions when she had been rude, aloof, depressed, or just plain bitchy for no apparent reason. However, even with Hermione there was a world of difference between her usual moodiness and being on the point of a nervous breakdown.

"It's probably the whole Mrs. Severus Snape thing." He muttered as he walked out onto the grounds and into the sunshine for the first time in over a week.

As his eyes adjusted to the light he heard approaching footsteps and a familiar voice.

"Ron!" He looked around to see Harry's brilliant green eyes and perpetually unkempt nest of hair.

"Harry!" He exclaimed as they embraced for no more than a second or two.

"I see that you've finally got your speckled mug back." Harry said with a smile and Ron punched him in the arm.

"Stuff yourself Potter." He said with a feigned scowl and Harry looked at him with mock-annoyance. The pair then watched one another for a long while, daring the other to break their façade. Harry broke first and started to chuckle. Ron followed.

"I am glad that you and your speckled mug are better though, really." Harry said as he put an arm around his friend's shoulder and they walked past the lake where some first years were trying to coax the giant squid out of the depths.

"Yeah, me too." Ron replied. "Man, this is a hell of a lot better than the greeting I got from Hermione. What's she got up her arse?"

"Well, if you asked anyone else they would probably tell you Snape's-"

"Harry!" Ron groaned. Harry smirked.

"Well on top of the whole Snape thing me and her aren't talking."

"What do you mean?"

"Remember that whole thing with you and me last year?"

Ron sighed. "Yeah, I still feel pretty bad about that by the way."

"Yeah, well, it's like that; only I doubt that I'll ever be able to talk to her again."

Ron gasped. He looked both shocked and concerned. "What happened?"

"You know how I said I would explain everything to you when you were better and we could be alone?"

Ron nodded and followed Harry as they walked to a secluded spot in the back of the school grounds. Harry put a silencing charm around them so no one else could hear.

"Now, Hermione didn't take this so well…" Harry trailed off and Ron looked at his pained expression.

"That would seem to be the understatement of the century." Ron said. "When I mentioned your name to her back in the common room she looked like she could have crucio-ed me."

Harry winced. "Yeah well…_meandsiriushavebeentogethersincesummer…_"

Ron only blinked. "What?"

"Sirius and I have been together since summer. I've been acting like such a dickfuck because not only am I in love with him, but I miss him more than you could know. Snape was convinced that I was acting like such an idiot because Voldemort was messing with my head so he convinced Hermione to help him keep an eye on me and report to him when I did something crazy or weird or suspicious.

'Long story short: she helped him find out about me and Sirius without meaning to. Snape told Remus in order to taunt him and now Remus wants to murder Sirius. Hermione overheard Snape telling Remus because she had snuck into his room in the hospital wing using my invisibility cloak (which she stole) to see if he had really tried to off himself and get my normal cloak back (which she also stole)-"

"You mean that, that cloak smelled like that because you and him had…had…" Ron's eyes grew wide and Harry nodded. Ron felt almost nauseous. He had buried his nose in it.

"Fucking hell!" Ron exclaimed. "If she would have told me that she was taking the cloak to fucking Snape I never would have let her."

"You _knew_ all along?"

"Not exactly. One night in the common room after one of your Occlumency lessons with the Greasy Git we were sitting and talking. When you got up and left for bed you left your cloak behind. Later I was getting up when I noticed and picked up to bring it to you when I noticed that it smelled…"

"Like sandalwood." Harry finished with a slight smile and Ron stared at him oddly.

"I don't want to know." Ron groaned. "But I couldn't place the scent and I figured that Hermione would know. I called her over and she smelled it and told me that she didn't know either but that she had a friend that would know-"

"Fucking Snape!" Harry growled. He had heard almost the same story from Hermione, only she had left Ron out.

"Yeah, so she told me to not tell you that she had your cloak. She also left out that she was bringing it to the Greasy Git so she could help him spy on you. I'm really sorry, mate."

"And after all of that she had the nerve to ask me not to tell Snape that she _tattled_ on him!"

"Damn." Ron shook his head.

"Why didn't you tell me what had happened to my cloak, Ron?" Harry asked after several minutes of silence.

"She said that it could help us figure out where you had been, I really wanted to know and was worried that Voldemort was like making you go mad or something, and it didn't even cross my mind for a second that her _friend _was Snape. Then I just kind of forgot about it."

"Oh." Harry replied weakly and they sat in silence for several minutes.

"Why didn't you tell me about you and Sirius?" Ron said, seeming more annoyed than anything.

"You mean, you're not angry?"

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm bloody angry as all hell! We've been best mates since we were what, eleven?! And the first time something that you actually care about happens to you, you decide that you'd be better off hiding it from me!"

"Ron, it's just that I-"

"Yeah, I can understand keeping it quiet from the rest of the world- people are total dimmocks- but you had to know better than to think that I am one of them, honestly!"

"Wait, so you don't even care that I'm-"

"Gay? No, why the fuck should I care? You can fuck whoever you want, aside from me of course."

"It's just that Remus and Hermione-"

"Remus probably thinks that Sirius is betraying your father's trust and one hell of a sick freak for fucking a child (he probably even looks at it almost like incest) and Hermione is just a moody bitch who grew up in _your_ world; you know how muggles are about that sort of thing. At least Hermione should get over it…eventually."

Harry only blinked. Ron, who normally seemed to do no more than eat, breathe, sleep, and try to copy other people's homework had said something insightful and completely correct. Harry realized that he and Hermione had both underestimated Ron and Harry was not sure of how to respond. Eventually he settled for "So, you're not weirded out by this at all?"

"I'm not going to lie, I totally don't get it. But you said that you love him and we've been friends for years. All of that's not going to go out the window in ten minutes just because you and Sirius…are together."

"Yeah?" Harry asked with a barely perceptible smile.

"Yeah." Ron replied and Harry dissipated the silence charm and they walked back to sit by the lake where Ron immediately turned the conversation to a lighter topic.

Author's Note/Review Replies:

KatAndMonkey: I agree with you. I myself have never liked Harry. I've always found him to be an in inept twit and my story reflects that. Thank you for reading and reviewing.

AN: REVIEW AND I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER!


	22. That's The Spirit

"Tell me Mr. Potter, why would the extremely limited skill which you have acquired in Occlumency serve you naught against Lord Voldemort?"

"Because it is _extremely limited_?" Harry deadpanned and Snape gave him a look which could have curdled milk.

"Aren't you a clever one?" The potion's master replied acerbically, venom nearly oozing from him as he spoke. "Now answer my question, Potter."

"Ummm…" Harry only looked at him blankly before loathingly muttering "I have no idea."

"Of course not." Snape replied and Harry fought back a scowl. "I have taught you to empty your mind completely to protect yourself from Voldemort's onslaughts. If he enters your mind and finds it empty, what would that tell him?"

_I wouldn't know how the fucking Dark Lord thinks. Which one of us is the Death Eater here?_ "I don't know, sir."

"It would tell him that you are hiding something and that he may need to be a little bit more _persuasive._" Snape took a pause and watched Harry hold back a miserable groan. "That is why I will now teach you how to create false memories incase he should set upon you, and trust me Potter it is only a matter of time."

Harry only blinked at him, obviously confused. Severus sighed.

"In other words, I will teach you cunning. Being in Gryffindor I doubt that you would know the first thing about subtlety."

_Oh, trust me you bloody fucking git! I know everything about subtlety! If I didn't I would have beat the living shit out of you years ago! _"Whatever." Harry replied.

"That's the spirit." Snape said with a smirk. "In your case, it would be best to come up with your false memories before hand."

It took all of Harry's self control not to punch him in the face.

Nearly an hour and a half later (after collapsing and falling unconscious for nearly a quarter of an hour) Harry was dismissed. He crawled back to the common room to find Hermione at one of the corner tables buried under papers and books and Ron attempting to play wizard chess against himself. A large group of Gryffindors were playing some incredibly loud and obnoxious game, crowded in a circle around a boy and a girl.

Harry collapsed into a chair beside Ron. "Who's winning?" He asked with a wry grin and Ron rolled his eyes.

"Me," The redheaded boy said proudly. "But I'm also losing."

Harry let out a noise that was halfway between a chuckle and a painfully exhausted moan before falling asleep in the chair beside Ron as he mercilessly wiped the floor with himself at wizard chess.

* * *

Review Reply/Author's Note:

Moony-is-a-werewolf: Finally, someone else who agrees. Usually when I say that someone always seems to feel the need to give me a lecture on how wrong I am. Thanks so much for the review and I'm glad you like it. And cookies are always nice.

KatAndMonkey: Yeah, I agree. That's how I wrote him. Toward the end of DH he really annoyed me. And things don't really get any easier for Hermione, all though she does live up to her potential as a one of the most brilliant witches of the age instead of playing second fiddle to the hapless wonder and later popping out a few for his brainless sidekick. Thanks for the review.

AN: GROUP THANK YOU #2

To my lovely reviewers: KatAndMonkey, moony-is-a-werewolf, doralinda, animesnape21, hi-purr, Naruka, cookie monster, HeatherLB, Noc007, Pops, KnowingDivine, DebsTheSlytherinSnapefan, and munchnzoey!

To my favoriters: BadFAith81, DebsTheSlytherinSnapefan, KatAndMonkey, animesnape21, blackkitsue, brzoskwinia, moony-is-a-werewolf, munchnzoey, natalie668, puppyscreensavers, serenityba, and taylor-996!

To my alerters: Alicia Spinet, AlterWolfe, BadFAith81, Beladera, Brea45, Crogi-Girl, Draky, Edinachan, HELLSFLAME666, HeatherLB, KnowingDivine, Koinaka, Naruka, Snape Heiress, ThexBlackxRose, animesnape21, doralinda, gabicoesil, king40, loveshouse, marble121, mashkitkat, moony-is-a-werewolf, natalie668, silverlilypetal, taylor-996, and zoebeansmommy!


	23. Enter Luna

"Harry!"

Harry opened his eyes to see Luna Lovegood standing over him. Her bottom lip was split in half; dried blood flaked off of her pallid chin and stained the collar of her nightshift. It seemed that she hadn't noticed this. The scene focused about him and he saw Ron standing to his left staring fearfully into the dark. He followed Ron's line of vision and saw Hermione lying on the floor, clutching her abdomen, and sobbing. She looked as if she had lost weight and her skin was nearly transparent.

"Wha…what?" Harry stuttered dumbly as he looked at the scene before him. "Did I…"

Luna said no and Ron yelled yes at exactly the same time.

"Harry what the hell-"

"You were sleepwalking-"

"You attacked us!"

"You don't remember, do you Harry?"

"You've nearly killed Hermione!"

"Harry," Luna said as she reached out, barely touching his cheek with her bloodless fingers and peering into his eyes. "Do you remember what you dreamt?" He only shook his head. Ron was about to start berating Harry again when suddenly a gasp came from Hermione.

"Get me back to the common room before someone sees!" She hissed and the others immediately quieted and made their way back up to Gryffindor tower. Ron and Harry helped Hermione, who could barely even breathe without suffering agonizing pain. Luna led the way, the faint lumos she had cast providing almost ample light.

Soon enough they were safe within the common room. Hermione was laying on one of the benches attempting to stifle her cries. Luna sat beside her, gently stroking her hair as if to soothe her. Harry sat nearby holding his throbbing head in his hands. His scar burned. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ron furiously stalking over and prepared himself to be screamed at when suddenly Hermione spoke.

"Ron, you idiot, don't you understand?" She spat and Ron only stopped and looked at her. She looked at Harry until he met her gaze. "Your scar hurts doesn't it?" Harry only nodded and Ron gasped.

"Are you sure that you do not remember what you dreamed of?" Luna asked again and Harry scoured his memory before shaking his head.

"The last thing I remember I was falling asleep in the chair by the fire over there. Ron was playing chess…can you tell me what happened?"

"I was researching The Beast of Gévaudan," Luna began. "You came down here and you looked...off. When I tried to ask you what was wrong you told me that you were tired of being used, were leaving, and to get out of your way. Then you…hit me…" She trailed off, a faraway look in her eyes. Harry started to appologize but Luna stopped him. " After that I went upstairs to get Hermione, I figured that she would be awake doing homework (which she was), and tried to convince her that you needed her help. She wouldn't come but agreed to show me where Ron's dorm was so he and I could take care of it. Ron forced Hermione to come with and then we left. Using a heat seeking spell we found you in the corridor before the astronomy tower.

'Hermione then tried to reason with you and ask you what was wrong. You told her that you shouldn't have to fight for a bunch of ungreatful people who make your life hell for it and that you wouldn't be some mad old crackpot's tool anymore. Your eyes were red and…it wasn't your voice. You said that you were going home, broke the lock on the door to the astronomy tower with your bare hands and started to climb the stairs. Hermione thought that you had finally lost it and were going to jump off of the astronomy tower. We tackled you to the floor. You fought us and Hermione got the worst of it." Luna finished.

"You broke at least one of my ribs." Hermione declared breathily, still clutching her abdomen. Harry began to appologize when she cut him off. "Are you absoloutely _positive_ that you cannot remember your dream?"

Harry dug through all of his memories. "No." He said finally and truthfully with a frustrated frown. "I have no idea." He groaned as he scar began to ache sharply, as if it were attempting to tear itself free of his forehead.

"I don't think that the lessons Snape's giving you are helping much." Ron muttered thoughtfully after a while and the room fell silent. The four young students only looked at one another for a long while.

"You don't think…" Harry trailed off, suddenly looking incredibly wan and frail.

"I wouldn't put it past the stupid git. Once a death eater, always a death eater." Ron muttered as he sat on the sofa by Hermione's feet.

"Ron!" Hermione cried and Harry and Ron glared at her, thinking that she was about to come to the wretched man's defense when they were suddenly interrupted.

"Professor Snape's a death eater?" Luna gasped. Ron bashed his head into the sofa behind him and Hermione and Harry let out a groan. Suddenly Luna's eyes became wide as realization dawned on her.

"That means that…we're not safe here."

"Luna-"Harry began but was quickly interrupted by the frantic young blonde.

"Voldemort's growing more powerful by the day, the ministry's playing right into his hands, there's a death eater in Hogwarts, and we're not even learning basic defensive spells! What do they expect us to do when the death eater's come? Tell them to hold off because Umbridge doesn't believe that they exist? Tell them to go pick on some other kid because Fudge was afraid that if we learn actual magic Dumbledore'll make an army of us and overthrow him?"

"Luna-" Harry tried again but was interrupted.

"We're not all like you Harry! They say you're going to be the most powerful wizard who has ever lived. You've already faced Voldemort, what, four times now? If a two year old accidentally got their hands on a wand and unknowingly hit me with something bad I wouldn't know what to do. That is where most of us are. We're helpless." Luna then wandered away blankly leaving the remaining Gryffindors staring after her. When she had walked about a quarter of the way up the dormitory staircase Harry called for her. She turned to face him.

"Do you know about the Room of Requirement?" He asked and Luna nodded. "Be there tomorrow, Saturday night at ten. I…I'll teach you what I can." He said and Luna nodded again before turning around and continuing to walk up the stairs.

"Luna." Hermione called from the duvet as Luna reached the landing before the dormitories. The other girl spun around, obviously annoyed at being halted again. Hermione smiled slightly. "The girls' dormitories are over there." She said as she pointed toward the opposite staircase. Luna descended the staircase to the boy's dorms in a huff and then strode up the other one before disappearing into the correct dormitory. Suddenly Hermione looked thoughtful as she lay back on the sofa, summoned her wand, and cast a charm to heal her broken rib. "Wait, Luna is in Ravenclaw. Why would she be in the Gryffindor common room at such an ungodly hour?"

Harry looked up to see Luna tiptoe from the hallway of the girls' dorms and hover across the space in between to the boys' dormitories and disappear inside.

Review Replies/Author's Note:

Moony-is-a-werewolf: From the first book on I waited for Harry to show us that he was actually worthy of the praise that was constantly heaped upon him and book after book I was basically disappointed. He had some high points but his character never really matured or grew. Unlike you, I never really though much about Snape hiding something in the first book. I just thought he seemed to be the only one who had a clue. And thank you.

KatAndMonkey: Basically it's Snape's tone. He's very condescending and Harry is also very immature and gets angry very easily in both cannon and my fic. And yes, Snape has not told Dumbledore yet, but depending on where I want to go with this he might just be biding his time. He could also keep quiet. I haven't decided yet. And I have plans for Hermione which I think you will like.

Doralinda: That sucks about your job, but I'm glad you're back! And that was actually exactly where I was going with Sirius psychologically. You're good. I was also just trying to switch it up a bit with both Ron and Remus as most people tend to write them the same way. Thank you so much and I promise that everything will be explained by the end as I hate loose ends.

An: Three reviews for one chapter. YAY! Oh, and I saw Dark Knight for the fourth time tonight and I have to say it is one of the only movies I have ever seen that gets better every time. I mean, and I find problems with everything on almost every level. I was the one obnoxious person in the theater during Phantom of the Opera who went "How exactly did the phantom get a horse, organ, and gondola down into the catacombs of an opera house with no one noticing? And what the fuck is up with the water anyway? Is this Paris or Venice? Judging by the accent of everyone in the movie you would think it's fucking London." I was the one person in the theater during Sweeney Todd who went "His chair is on the top floor and the boiler room where the bodies are dumped is in the basement. The restaurant is in the middle. There would have to be some kind of chute right in the damn middle of Mrs. Lovett's pie shop and I didn't see one." So, yeah. Dark Knight is amazing. If you haven't seen it yet hop to it. It's sexy.


	24. Dumbledore's Army

"I'm sorry about Hermione." Ron said as Harry searched through his things for his invisibility cloak. Being that it was Saturday night the dorms were nearly empty, leaving the two boys the privacy they needed.

"'s fine." Harry grumbled as he tossed a shoe behind him in his mad search for his cloak. The shoe narrowly missed a rather flustered Ron who already sported a black eye from the last shoe Harry had thrown aside. "We don't need her anyway. She'd probably just run off and tell the boyfriend." He muttered bitterly.

"Now don't be like that mate." The red head sighed. "She's been going around with a broken rib using weak painkilling charms every twenty minutes in order to not get you in trouble. Mione's just having a hard time is all. She's not eating, she's barely sleeping-"

"What? So you're on her side now?" Harry snapped as he finally found the invisibility cloak and held it in his arms. He looked up at Ron, suddenly looking unbearably sad. "Why is everyone always against me?"

"I'm not against you. I just don't like having my two best mates at each others' throats all the damn time." Harry smiled slightly however his smile was replaced with a scowl upon hearing his friend's next words. "You think you all'll be friends eventually right?"

Harry only glared for several minutes before pulling Ron over by his tie and then stepping before the still flustered young man and throwing the cloak over them. "If we don't leave now we'll be late." He said as they walked across the empty dorm, down the dormitory hallway, and down the staircase. They expertly made their way through the crowded common room undetected, weaving through a game of spin the bottle, exploding snap, a group of obviously drunk seventh years, and then nearly an entire field of fizzing whizbies when Harry stopped dead.

In a darker corner of the common room sat Hermione, dark circles under her eyes and an inked quill pressed absently against her bottom lip staining it deep ebon. A half-finished transfiguration essay sat on her lap and fell to the floor as the absent look in her eyes turned to one of loathing. She shifted slightly in her chair so she faced them, her rancorous stare screaming murder. Once again Ron found himself reminded of Bellatrix and shuddered. The more Harry attempted to convince himself that it would have been impossible for Hermione to see them the more baneful her glower became. Harry and Ron soon fled from the common room in order to escape her gaze, it only being by some grace that they stayed hidden beneath the cloak.

Hermione took the quill from where it had rested against her lip, seemingly unaware of the dried ink staining her bottom lip and returned to her essay. Her gaunt fingers scratched meaningless words on the piece of parchment, her fingers aching and the skin torn and bleeding from near constant abuse.

Harry and Ron entered the room of requirement to see not only Luna but nearly a hundred other students standing behind her, many of whom Ron and Harry recognized. The room had perfected itself to suit their purposes.

"Luna, what is this?" Harry asked exasperatedly as he shrugged off his cloak and hung it on a cloak holder which seemed to appear beneath his fingers. She looked up at him with her usual vacant half grin.

"Well, I told my boyfriend Quimby Yates-" She said and a fairly petite Gryffindor with an arm slung about her yelled a greeting. "He told his twin brother Vaughan-" A nearly identical looking boy echoed his brother's greeting. "And Vaughan invited his girlfriend Amarantha Del Olmo who told her cousin Leda Katsaros-Grimm from Hufflepuff-"

"All right. I get it." Harry sighed. "_All_ of you want me to teach you?" He said more to himself than them. He couldn't believe it.

"Yeah." He recognized Neville Longbottom's voice and looked to see the rather awkward young man staring at his feet as he spoke. "It's plain enough that there's a lot of bad going on and with the way Umbridge is teaching we won't be able to defend ourselves if we don't take matters into our own hands." There were collective sounds of agreement from all present.

"Fudge is so afraid of Dumbledore making some kind of army to overthrow him that he's made us into walking targets." Luna said vehemently, the usually spacey girl seemed to have disappeared and been replaced with a bold young blonde who was ready to fight. The other's cheered in agreement. "You are supposedly the most powerful wizard of the age, please, help us." She said as she turned to Harry.

Harry looked at all of the imploring faces in the room and smiled wickedly. "I say we give Fudge a reason to be afraid." The other students in the room cheered. "From this day on we are Dumbledore's Army!" The students shared a collective cheer.

"I hope you all can see how serious this is. This may be your only chance at learning defense. Not in notes or words or anything at all-not one word about this can leave this room." Ron added and Harry nodded.

"Now pair up. We'll start with disarming your opponent." Harry said and the students did as they were told.

* * *

Author's Note/ Review Replies:

Moony-is-a-werewolf: Yeah. Hermione's having a bit of a though time. And I always liked Luna and felt as if she was forgotten so I threw her in here.

KatAndMonkey: Yeah, he is. Lol. And Luna kind of comes and goes. She's never really a major character though. And I really hope you like what happens with Hermione as I tried to come up with something a little bit different.

AN: "Disturbia" by Rhianna has been stuck in my head for the past two days. All though the music video is awesome. It's like a pop disco thriller type deal. The art direction is wicked. In typical Rhianna fashion the lyrics barely make sense but it's catchy. Oh, and I know I made Harry a total asshole, but I'm taking a vote. Do you want him to stay a total asshole or to grow up a bit? I promise that were he to grow up it would be organic growth over a long period of time.


	25. Possession

With the D.A, Occlumency lessons, the impending O.W.L's, and coming up with new and clever ways to avoid an increasingly suspicious, ruthless, and powerful Umbridge March flew by in a rush for Harry. When he was not up late doing school work he had not been able to complete during normal hours due to the D.A, Quidditch, Occlumency lessons, and avoiding an increasingly frightening Hermione he was plagued by harrowing nightmares. He barely functioned through days too full for him to handle as he was completely exhausted. On top of all of that he had been caught trying to steal a potion to end his horrid nightmares from Snape's private stores and had, had to spend three weeks in detention cleaning cauldrons by hand.

It was during a potion's lesson during the last days of March when he was shaken awake for the first time in nearly a month. He had been sleeping through the lesson as Ron failed miserably at brewing some ghastly concoction. It smelled of rotting flesh and began to bubble ominously as Ron frantically stirred it. For the first time in his life Ron found himself wishing that Snape would look his way, see Harry blatantly sleeping, and wake him up as Ron could not bring himself to awaken his exhausted friend himself.

_Wait a minute. Snape is always looking for a chance to scream at Harry. Why the fuck hasn't the stupid git realized that he's sleeping?_ Ron looked as discretely (which in fact was not very discrete) as he could at Snape and followed his gaze to see that it fell on Hermione.

_Just as the rumors stopped too. I hope no one else notices._ Ron thought as he looked at Hermione only to realize that the girl he had secretly pined over for years now looked like a corpse. She had never been the most beautiful girl at Hogwarts, but Ron thought she was just fine. The fiery young Gryffindor had always held some sort of appeal for him, but it had long since vanished.

The Hermione he was stealing glances at as his botched potion continued to seethe menacingly was frail and sickeningly pallid. Dark circles framed her eyes and black ink stained her lips. As he watched her hands indecisively chop at something root like he noticed that the skin was translucent and the nearly visible bones made sharp inhuman edges in her delicate fingers.

He then looked back up to Snape and swore he found the smallest bit of sympathy in that gaze. He gasped and in his shock tapped the steaming cauldron with his elbow. He howled as the offending object burnt his skin. Not a second after two more cries were heard as his ruined potion spilled from the cauldron and landed squarely on two Slytherin girls sitting at the table next to his. The girls screamed wildly as they broke out in hives which seemed determined to break free of their skin. Harry remained asleep through all of this.

Snape had risen from his desk and rushed over to the frantic girls. He screamed at Ron, giving him a month's detention and taking fifty points from Gryffindor, as he dragged the screaming girls and their baying puss-filled hives to the infirmary. Ron only stood there dumbly as all of the Slytherins glared at him. Half of the Gryffindors in the room glared at him for losing so many house points, while the other half looked as if they could have clapped or kissed him for simultaneously taking out two snakes. In the midst of this stood an addled-beyond-repair Ron, a sleeping Harry, and Hermione who seemed blissfully unaware as she absently continued to cut at the root on her table, narrowly missing one of her skeletal fingers.

Ron finally gracelessly collapsed into his seat beside Harry. After several minutes of all of the eyes in the classroom focused on him (with the exception of Hermione's) he became restless and jabbed Harry in the side.

Harry hissed so loudly at the contact that nearly half of the room jumped. He then let out another furious serpentine hiss as he drove his fist into Ron's nose with preternatural strength. Ron crumpled to the floor in a pile and Harry stalked out of the room.

Minutes later Snape returned to find the atmosphere in his classroom so thick that you could have cut it with a knife. Ron was lying on the floor holding his bleeding nose, the entire classroom was gawking at him, Hermione seemed to be in her own world as she languidly cut at the air before her fingers (the knife emitting earsplitting shrieks as it scraped against the table), and Potter was conspicuously absent. He Looked at the pathetic Weasley and then over to Draco Malfoy.

"Mr. Malfoy," The potion's master droned. "While I sympathize with you completely it is still most regrettably against the rules to bludgeon your fellow students, regardless of how deserving they are. Ten points from Slytherin and a weeks worth of detention."

"But Professor, I didn't-" Malfoy began but was quickly interrupted by Snape.

"I find that hard to believe Mr. Malfoy."

"No really! It was Potter! Ron elbowed him awake. Potter went all Parseltongue at him, punched him in the face, and stormed out." All of the other Slytherins nodded in agreement and Snape sighed tepidly.

Every student in the classroom nearly jumped out of their skin as a loud clang reverberated off of the floor and walls. A lightly bloodstained knife fell to the floor beside Hermione. The class watched as she bent sideways to gather it, several cuts from clumsy handling marred her hands.

"Let us just hope he's not headed for the astronomy tower again." Hermione said airily as she picked up the thankfully dull knife by the blade, paying it no mind as it cut shallowly into her palm.

"_Again!?_" Snape hissed but Hermione did not respond. She returned to obliviously cutting the nearly pulverized root like matter on her desk. Snape winced visibly as the edge of the knife lightly nicked her thumb and blood dripped from it. Ron let out an unintelligible cry as he sprung up off of the floor and fled from the room.

Snape stood in the aisle in between occupied desks looking completely torn. He gazed from the door which Mr. Weasley had just run out of in pursuit of a most likely suicidal Mr. Potter to a clearly unstable Hermione. While Snape was certain of where his duties lay he could not find himself to abandon the teenage girl without his conscience screaming at him.

And scream it did as he fled the room in pursuit of Harry Potter.

Ten minutes later as professor Snape passed a castle window in his mad pursuit he noticed Harry stalking toward the lake and Ron running after him haphazardly. Snape's first instinct was to apparate out to the boys when suddenly he recalled that such a feat was impossible within Hogwarts. He cursed as he ran as fast as he could toward the castle entrance, his robes billowing behind him.

"Harry!" Ron screamed as his friend stood on the edge of the lake, staring into it longingly. Suddenly he spun angrily, his wand pointed menacingly into Ron's exposed throat.

"H-Harry." Ron whimpered. Cold crimson eyes glared back at him from behind those garish glasses. Ron knew that he was lost. Harry was gone. "Mate it's me." He babbled. "It's me. It's Ron, your Ron, your best mate-"

His frightened babbling was ended by an unnatural hiss from Harry. Ron let out a cry as Harry's lips twisted into a cruel smirk. A voice that was not his own poured from his lips which seemed to twitch in indignation at the unintelligible statement; for a split second Ron saw Harry. His rubescent eyes flashed their natural haunting emerald as his body quaked. A frustrated anguish-filled cry was ripped from him as every muscle in his body was pulled taut. Harry collapsed to the ground. His wand landed feet away in the grass leaving a petrified Ron to witness his inner turmoil as he lay quivering in the grass, powerless to help.

"Stop!" Harry cried weakly. He looked up at Ron from his crouching position on the grass. His expression was pained as his eyes flashed madly between terrified jade and a wrathful preternatural blood red. "Ron," He muttered, what voice he could muster full of determination. Tears and sweat poured down his face. "I have to make it stop."

Concentration overcame Harry's quivering body and determination blazed in the depths of his eyes as he bit clear through his bottom lip and let out a sharp cry. Blood mingled with the salt of tears and perspiration on his chin. His eyes turned as red as his ensanguined chin as he lunged forward toward Ron, hissing things the other boy could not understand in Parseltongue. Harry collapsed for the final time mere inches from Ron, lying motionless in the grass.

* * *

Author's Note/ Review Reply:

moony-is-a-werewolf: Yay! And thanks for the review. You've been my most loyal reviewer thus far.

AN: If I wrote a batman fic would anyone read it? And before you ask; yes, I am a loser. But seriously, I have this idea and it won't leave me alone.


	26. Phosphorescence

Harry awoke surrounded by blurry humanoid shapes and obscure light. His last memory was of being utterly torn in two both mentally and physically as he was led to the lake where he could end his seemingly ceaseless misery and boundless guilt. As he followed without complaint, almost welcoming oblivion, one thought seemed to force its way into his conscious mind. In that instant he knew he had to fight.

Harry wondered if he had not fought hard enough and that at the moment he was experiencing death. He screamed and panicked wildly as his entire body burned and seized violently.

He heard a muffled voice as something cool and soft was pressed against his forehead. He nearly moaned at the contact. The cool was soothing against his burning skin. He cried out as an angry burbling pierced his ears and the cold abruptly taken away. Suddenly the indecipherable malevolent voices grew louder and louder until a loud bang ripped through his aching head and the world was once again plunged into silence and darkness.

"And for what Harry? I…"

He awoke to a soft voice whispering in his ear and wintry silk caressing his hand. The poor boy could not find the strength to open his eyes so he merely lay as the comforting touch moved slowly above his wrist and then back to his hand.

"…so sorry about everything…"

Harry realized that the voice had been speaking long before he could concentrate enough to perceive it and would most likely continue in its monologue long after he had again succumbed to darkness.

"…sometimes I question that man's sanity. Why on earth would he send you here?…"

While he welcomed darkness it seemed that he could not even be granted that kindness as the voice became stronger and he once again felt the air against his exposed skin and the softness beneath him. The evanescent obscurity became a chromatic swirling light. It seemed as if the scene about him were some kind of abstract painting.

"…I will protect you from him as long as you are here Harry and-"

Suddenly the colorful blur was disturbed as a dark looming shape, its aura gleaming white against a dark brume appeared.

"Your shift ended ten minutes ago _wolf._" Harry screamed as the white semblance around the dark figure turned the miserable grey-black of a tempest. Whetted shards broke off of the dark shadow of the silhouette as they would of a shattered vase and flew toward him menacingly. In order to avoid the offending shards he dove away, tumbling to the floor in a nude pained pile of quivering flesh and sweat soaked blanket.

The mutual animosity of the pair of obscured figures was forgotten as they dove for the boy, lifted him in their arms (he sighed at the algid feeling as their exposed hands touched his bare skin), and placed him back on the bed.

"He's burning up." A voice smooth as silk stated worriedly and Harry felt the soothing touch against his forehead. When he felt the touch moving away his hand snapped up to meet it, his protesting muscles aching.

"No." He muttered as he pressed the wintry silken hand against the torrid flesh of his forehead, cheeks, and neck.

As he pressed the hand against his chest he heard an angry huff and suddenly a door being slammed.

"Mmm…" Harry murmured incoherently as he moved the hand onto his lower abdomen, the cold hand assuaging some of the crippling heat that gripped him.

"Harry…"

The boy opened his eyes to see the dark indistinct figure hovering above him. The menacing dark which had surrounded it before dissipated and left a beautiful spectacle of shimmering reds and blues. Strangely clear and unmistakable grey orbs (which Harry finally recognized as eyes) pierced him from the ethereal mass. He recognized those eyes.

"S…Sirius?" He muttered as he glided the hand slightly to the left, not cognizant enough to connect it with its owner.

"Yes, that's right love. I'm here."

Harry began to sob and let go of Sirius' hand as his body fell limp. His mind did not function well enough to question why Sirius was there or where exactly he was. He was just barely sentient enough to revel in the comfort the older man lent just by being near. A smile spread across Harry's wan fevered face as he looked up at his Godfather.

"You're glowing." He murmured with awe. His emerald eyes sparkled with almost child-like idolatry. Sirius chuckled and bent down to kiss Harry lightly on the cheek and the younger man blindly reached for him when he tried to move away. Sirius allowed Harry's weak arms to pull him down. He lay still as Harry snuggled against him and lightly wrapped his arms about him after he was certain he was asleep.

"I love you, Harry." He told him over and over again as he slept. Whenever it looked as if he would have a nightmare Sirius kissed it away.

* * *

moony-is-a-werewolf: Umm...he's right here...in Grimmauld Place because he can't really leave aside from his infrequent visits to Hogwarts. And it will be explained by the end. Everything will. I promise

AN: Review por favor


	27. Desperate Housewife

Remus was sitting in the library of Grimmauld place the following afternoon. He had just finished his shift of watching a feverish Harry toss and turn and was feeling rather low. He had spent nearly an hour sitting in the dark contemplating all of the things that vexed him and making a list of them, which he semi-organized from most to least vexing. It was a relatively short list and consisted only of "The disturbing lack of chocolate in the house, Fucking Black, The fact that at that very moment Fucking Black was probably upstairs fondling James' ill and practically mentally unstable teenage son, the fact that neither said ill practically mentally unstable teenage son or Fucking Black saw anything wrong with that, the impending full moon, and once again the disturbing lack of chocolate".

When he had finally completed his list he had taken a book and resettled himself in his chair with a conjured cup of coffee. He had gotten immersed enough in the book and piping hot coffee to obliterate the troubles of his worrisome life when suddenly he heard the front door open and close and the sound of strong and sure footsteps.

Remus sighed, rid himself of the cup of coffee, left the book open on his chair, departed from the library, and descended the stairs to find Albus Dumbledore standing in the parlor smiling.

"Hello Remus." He smiled jovially and Remus returned the greeting politely but with not even half as much cheer. "How is young Harry?"

_Thoroughly fucked. _"When I sat my shift with him this morning his fever had abated slightly. Sirius is with him now." Remus said cordially. It had taken all of his resolve to say the name of Fucking Black (as he disdainfully called his former best friend) casually as he felt the true urge to strangle the man. He nearly twitched under Dumbledore's piercing gaze.

"Remus," The older wizard said somberly, his gaze revealing nothing. "Is there something you wish to tell me?" He then brushed by him as he made his way to the stairway, seemingly expecting Remus to follow. Dumbledore abruptly stopped and spun on his heel as he reached the first step, realizing that Remus had not gotten the hint. Dumbledore could not help but smile as he looked at the younger man who sheepishly looked at the floor and played nervously with the hems of his modest robes. He was the very picture of self-effacement; identical to the student he had been over twenty years ago.

"You seem troubled." Albus said after several moments of intense scrutiny. He nearly spent several more noting how flustered Remus seemed under his scrutiny.

"The full moon is in less than a week. It's going to be a bad one. I can feel it." Remus said and Dumbledore smiled kindly. His eyes twinkled. Remus once again had the oddest feeling that he knew exactly what was going on.

"Ah, but with Sirius here your burden should definitely be lightened. He has always been so helpful during your transformation."

Remus felt his heart drop into his stomach. In one he felt both horribly guilty and incredibly lonesome. He thought it would be prudent to not mention the fact that he had spent every full moon since he and Sirius had stopped talking locked in the catacombs of the black estate. The constant anger he had felt as a man only served to make his transformation even more unbearable as he could not keep his rage in check. He had nearly killed himself charging the stone walls in the enchanted catacombs numerous times. Remus only nodded weakly.

"I will go see to Harry now. It was good to see you again Remus." Dumbledore said with the same smile. Remus watched as the man ascended the staircase and disappeared.

Dumbledore walked down the hallway and stopped as he heard laughter coming from behind one of the doors. The deep almost sensual laugh of Sirius black and the quiet yet genuine half-laugh-half-sighs of Harry greeted him as he shamelessly stopped to eavesdrop, smiling to himself.

"You're just lucky that I like you." The sensual voice of Sirius black came through the wooden door and Dumbledore chuckled inwardly. He wondered how long they had been bantering.

"Oh yes. How should I ever survive without the wonderful-"

"And devilishly handsome." Sirius added and he heard Harry sigh.

"-the wonderful and devilishly handsome-" Harry droned only to be interrupted again by a jovial Sirius.

"Don't forget sex god."

"All right, now you're just pushing-"

"Hey! I take offense! Do not question my sexual prowess!"

"Sexual Prowess? Merlin, have you been reading Mrs. Weasley's witch magazines again?"

"Possibly…oh don't give me that look! I'm basically under house arrest in this damn place, what else am I supposed to do?"

"Well, for one thing, you could clean-" Sirius groaned. "-cook your own meals instead of risking poisoning by Kreacher-" Sirius groaned again. "-possibly even do some redecorating. This house looks like a bloody mausoleum and has the air of a mass grave."

"Do I _look_ like a housewife to you?"

"Yeah. All you need is a nice little corset, nipple rings, leather boots-"

"I don't know_ what_ kind of housewives you've seen Harry. I think that, that Weasley boy is a bad influence…"

Dumbledore smiled as he heard Harry let out a snort and decided to leave the pair to their bantering. Harry already sounded as if he was improving and that was all that mattered. The elderly wizard departed from Grimmauld Place in high spirits. If he would have stayed much longer he would have been privy to the noises the lovers made as they kissed languidly.

Author's Note/ Review Replies:

KatAndMonkey: Yeah, harry does really suck. that's how I wrote him. And Hermoine is basically in the midst of a psychological melt down. No one is helping her and its getting worse and worse.

moony-is-a-werewolf: Thank you! And I promise that everything will be explained.

AN: "Why so serious?" "You GANDERED at my ward!" "I have a machine gun. Ho...ho...ho" "I'll cut your heart out with a spoon!" "I see you!" "I'll come again when you have judge on the menu." "Cocoa moo!" "If I risked comunicable diseases she'll certainly risk jail." "So, how many of your friends have I killed?" "Grasp it, sense it, tremulous and tender." "I am your father." "Welcome to my summer palace!" "NOPE! IT WAS-A-DA POPE!" "Hi..." "Do the lambs still scream Clarice?"


	28. Chapter 28

Ronald Weasley was feeling incredibly lonesome. Harry would not be returning for another few days at least ("time to heal in peace" The Headmaster had said) and Hermione was as good as absent. Each feeble though entirely sincere attempt to reach her needed even more courage then the last as her mind seemed to be in a sure and steady decline; every conversation with the poor witch scared Ron more than the last.

Being that he was so alone he often found himself reminiscing about the good old days: The days when they were younger, their greatest fear was the cold and bat-like potions master and their biggest problems consisted of a homework load so gargantuan that it seemed it should have been punishable by wizard law to assign so many assignments at once and a greasy overly-feminine Slytherin by the name of Draco Malfoy. At some point during his musings he realized that those days were nonexistent as trouble seemed to follow Harry like a lovesick puppy. Ever since day one there had been constant trials, tests, and troubles for them however there had also been a great friendship; one that he felt dissipating faster by the moment.

He missed having Harry, the incredibly brave and determined old soul encased deceptively in a child's body with his hideous ever-present bed head and preternatural luck and skill on his right. Possibly even more so he missed having the brilliant, quick witted, incredibly talented, and beautiful (albeit slightly mental) witch sitting on his left. More than anything in the world he wanted them to sit at the dining table again while he stuffed his face and conversed with Harry about pointless and stupid things (Such as the best way to capture, restrain, and question an army of vicious renegade chocolate frogs) instead of doing their homework. He wanted Hermione sitting next to him with her nose buried in a book, only coming up for air to tell him that he ate like a starving Neanderthal.

He chuckled at other various memories before becoming incredibly depressed. Their fifth year was not even three quarters of the way done and already it had managed to drive them apart. Harry no longer confided in Ron as he used to and completely kept his distance from Hermione. He was caught in the middle watching as Harry and him grew apart and Hermione continued spiraling downward into madness. Occasionally he would look at her and nearly slap himself for being reminded of Bellatrix Lestrange. At times Hermione certainly would look if not criminally insane then only completely mad. Rarely he would look at her and for only a second see Hermione as she had always been staring back at him. It made is gut clench with sorrow.

One day in potions he found himself near tears with worry as he watched an increasingly gaunt and cadaverous Hermione sigh numbly as she stirred her potion. Perhaps he cared for her more than he had thought. He decided that it would be that night when he would talk to her.

He was feeling severely exhausted that night as he sat in the common room watching Hermione savagely flip through a book with such vigor that she was nearly tearing pages out. He had been waiting for several hours for the common room to clear so he could speak to her in private but it seemed that luck was not with him. While it was nearly eleven and the room had been gradually clearing during the night there was a very small number of students who seemed persistent to linger late into the night.

Being that it was nearing eleven Ron knew that he could not stay awake much longer and decided to take his chances. The small number of remaining Gryffindors had given Hermione a wide berth and it seemed that that would be the most privacy he would ever get. He rose from his chair by the fire and slowly walked over to the poor girl. He approached her slowly, as one might approach a sleeping lion or a madman. He quietly sat in the chair opposite her and watched her. Even after several minutes she seemed to have no idea that he was there.

"Hermione…" He said quietly, already wondering what in Merlin's name had possessed him to come over to her. He never knew what to say and when and his lack of tact could prove disastrous when dealing with someone in the state which Hermione was in. He almost let out a breath he had not realized he had been holding when she did not respond to him. The boy knew that he had to try.

This time he did not say anything. He knew from previous experience that he could try what he had just tried all night and get no response from the girl. He leaned across the table and gently took her face in his hands, forcing her to look up from her books and at him.

"Hermione," He said. Though her eyes were directed at him it seemed as though she was looking past him or through him. "Why are you doing this?" She didn't answer him. "Hermione, what the hell is wrong with you? You don't eat, you don't sleep, you just kind of float around like a bloody ghost!" His tone was soft and his eyes were filled with worry even if his statement was less than eloquent. Hermione still did not reply. He called to her again and she sighed. There was slight annoyance in her eyes but no other emotion was revealed on her countenance.

"My mental, physical, and emotional state should be of no consequence to you." She said vacantly. Her voice sounded dry and awkward, as if she had not spoken in a long time.

Ron had less than half an inkling as to what the girl had said but he still attempted to communicate with her. Eventually he settled on a concerned "How do you figure that?" as he was not certain of how to respond.

"You and I are no longer friends." She said just as blankly. This irked Ron and her emotionless façade only seemed to fan the flame.

"How the fuck do you figure _that_?" He asked indignantly.

"You're choice was obvious. You had to choose between Harry Potter: Savior of the Wizarding World, a young man with power that will someday rival Dumbledore's and Hermione Granger: the irrelevant little mudblood who just happened to tag along for the ride. All though I cannot say that I blame you for your decision I do not think I can remain friends with you."

While Ron did completely understand what she had said he had gotten the gist of it and it made him even angrier.

"I didn't choose anything!" He cried. "Every time I've tried to talk to you for the past couple of months you've either gone bonkers or totally ignored me. It's all your fault I'm stuck with Harry-the-bloody-space-case-Potter constantly. It's all your fucking fault!"

Hermione looked at Ron, looked down, looked up at him again. Her eyes flooded with tears and her head collapsed on top of the book before her. Her cadaverous hands turned to sharp-boned fists in her bushy mane of hair. "I know!" She cried over and over again as tears streamed down her face.

"If I could have just left it alone none of this would have happened! I should have just waited for Harry to be ready to tell me. I was just…weren't you worried? He was getting those Occlumency lessons so his mind and thoughts would be safe and he walked around in a daze. How was I to know that there wasn't something sinister going on? And then when Snape said…it just all made so much sense and I just had to know…because I always know! Ah, it was as much for the safety of Harry's sanity as my own! It was driving me mad Ron…"

"I know." He replied. There was a long silence.

"And what are you all involved in that Umbridge keeps haranguing me about!? What is going on Ron? Why am I…you…it…so unlike me…"

At some point during her inane babbling Ron moved across to the other side of the table and put his arms around her. He held her as she continued to blubber and babble. At one point during the night (after Hermione had calmed considerably) they had moved to a duvet by one of the windows and sat. Hermione, who was exhausted from crying, fell asleep leaning against Ron, who was simply exhausted.

Author's Note/ Review Reply:

moony-is-a-werewolf: The other's are from Die Hard, Robin Hood, Kim Possible, Silence of the Lambs, Phantom of the Opera, Starwars, Lord of the Rings, Hairspray, and Van Helsing. I just kind of put down whatever popped into my head when I thought of quotes by villains.

KatAndMonkey:It was Sirius. Remus and he aren't getting along at the moment so that's what's up with all of the animosity. And , incase you haven't noticed, he's been seeing strange things whenever he's in a state of semi-consciousness throughout the entire story. That will be explained aswell. I actually started this story last year but got lost and have been struggling trying to fix it so it meets my standards now.

AN: "Buckleberry ferry!" "Excuse me bad guys, but I am running out of air." "GIVE ME MY BLUE BLANKET!" "Ah, so I see your schwartz is as big as mine." "Do or do not, there is no try." "That really bites." "And I'll sing while my brother Oren taps along to the strange rhythms in his head." "You know, like that rock musical about Jack the Ripper called Saucy Jack." "The feast...IT'S RUINED!!" "You have a touch of _destiny _about you" "And under 'name' they drew a picture of a monkey fucking a coconut!" "VAGINA DENTADA!!" "Well, actually I'm just a friar..."


	29. Judgmental

Harry's green eyes were pensive as he sat brooding over his tea. He wasn't exactly sure of the day or precise hour, but he knew that with the coming dawn he would be leaving Grimmauld Place and returning to Hogwarts. While Hogwarts had been his favorite place and nearly the only place he had considered home since he was eleven, he found himself loath to return. While he did miss his friends and the peculiar aura of the magical castle, he knew he would miss Sirius even more.

"You will not stop me Lupin!"

"Bastard!"

Screams echoed from the parlor again and Harry sighed tiredly.

He could not have truthfully said how long he had sat there, only that his tea had long since gone cold. Being that the room he was occupying had no windows no light filtered in to betray the hour. It was bland with slivers of white wall showing above bookshelves. He sat at a large desk coated in dust. The room was actually rather cold and eerie, but it seemed to be the only place he could go to find peace when Remus and Sirius fought. The pair had been looking for any excuse to start a row over the last several days and Harry had been plagued by their screams almost constantly. The room seemed to have been charmed to block out noise once the door was shut.

"You simple-minded son of a whore-"

"Bloody fucking werewolf! Always sticking your great dirty snout in my business…"

Harry got up, shut the door, and sat in the ominous looking black chair before the dusty old desk. Soon he fell asleep in the silence the room granted him, oblivious to the battle raging a floor below.

"That is a horrible idea Black! Do you not understand the implications-" Remus cried as he dodged the cup of scalding tea a furious Sirius black had chucked at his head. The china crashed against the wall behind him. "I won't let you! I cannot in good conscience-"He stopped as the leg of a chair collided with his thigh. "Bastard!" He cried as he grabbed the offending chair as one of its legs came close to his left eye. It splintered in his inhumanly strong grasp. His eyes blazed preternatural amber. He growled as he lunged forward and pinned a flailing Sirius Black to the kitchen floor.

Black and tawny hair mingled as Remus kept the larger man pinned against the floor. "No." The werewolf howled as he forcefully slammed the other man's clasped wrists against the floor. "You will not do that to Harry." The sound of his wrist bones against the floor and his stifled pained grunts made a sickening cadence.

Sirius nodded mutely in acquiescence as he nearly felt his wrists start to break under Remus' attack. Unlike the majority of the days he had spent since coming to Grimmauld place he had better things to do then be pulverized by an irate lycanthrope. He tried to keep his anger in check as Remus peeled himself away and stood, looking almost guilty.

"Sirius…" He said softly. His eyes became brown as the shy young man returned. He looked shaken. Sirius only sat on the floor, panting heavily as rage wracked his frame.

"Sirius…" Remus said quietly as he cautiously stepped forward. He was too blinded by his own shame to fully realize what the dangerous flash in his former best friend's sere eyes meant.

"Siri-"

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"

The next thing Remus knew he was laying petrified beneath a determined looking Sirius Black.

"It shouldn't have come to this." He intoned sadly and watched as anger flared in the petrified man's eyes. "I never would have expected someone like _you_ to be so judgmental."

Sirius sighed as he grabbed Remus by the ankles and dragged his leaden body into the nearest long-since-empty cupboard. He took his wand and performed a locking charm on the door before stowing away both wands and going off to find Harry.

Author's Note/ Review Replies:

moony-is-a-werewolf: No problem. And thanks.

KatAndMonkey: There's no exuces really. My own emotions got in the way, hence the plot hole. Similar things happen in the real world all the time.


	30. Lover to Lover

Sirius was quickly becoming frustrated. He had searched nearly the entire Black manor, even rooms that had been locked tight for the generations. He had searched every floor and even the dungeons and Regulus' old room only to find the house conspicuously absent of one Harry Potter. He called and called for him only to find that the boy did not respond.

It was over an hour later as he sat brooding in the kitchen when an idea struck him. He did not know what exactly would have possessed Harry to go in _there_, but he had something of the utmost importance to discuss with him and if it meant facing a few bad memories to get him then he sure as hell would do it.

Sirius walked quickly from the kitchen, down the hall, and up the stairs. He strode briskly across the hallway only to stop dead before large door of charmed black wood with a doorknob of silver. He sighed as he reached for the doorknob only to pull back again.

"Pussy." He murmured aloud, his voice full of self disgust as he roughly grasped the doorknob and pulled it open. He shuddered as it creaked open to reveal a bland windowless room. A dark chair sat before a wooden desk which was pressed against the opposite wall of his father's study. His voice failed him upon seeing two black clad legs contrasting starkly with the almost entirely white room. He could hear a quill lightly tapping in a smooth cadence against the desk. _Orion Black _glinted in embossed gold letters on the base which it tapped against.

Sirius quelled the near overpowering urge to say "I'm sorry Sir" as he gently walked forward. The only change in the room since his childhood was the thick coating of dust. He also remembered that his father had charmed the room to be impervious to noise so Harry most likely had not heard his and Remus' row.

"H-Harry…" He choked out and the boy did not respond. He took another step forward, thinking about how to best rouse Harry from his daze without touching his father's chair. Unable to come up with a suitable solution he merely spun the chair around, gathered a lethargic Harry into his arms, and sped out of the room.

"Sirius!" Harry exclaimed as he had to curl closer to the larger man in order to avoid having his head smashed in by an open door. Over the months he had become used to Sirius Black's infamous mood swings, but even this was a bit of a stretch.

"Yes?" Sirius replied breathily, still nearly sprinting as he dodged over a disgruntled looking Kreacher.

"What's gotten into you?" Harry asked as they came to the stairs and Sirius gripped him even more tightly.

"I…I…have…umm..ahh…" Sirius trailed off uncertainly as he let his feet lead them across the bottom floor of the house.

"Sirius…are you all right?" Harry said worriedly. His godfather was never at a loss for words.

The older man only grunted in response as they came to a stop in the middle of one of Grimmauld Place's many hallways. He gently deposited Harry on the ground. The young man watched as Sirius knocked three times on the wall and a door appeared. It looked almost medieval and held an ominous air.

"The catacombs." Sirius announced shakily.

"Feeling kinky are we?" Harry said before he could stop himself and immediately regretted it, as Sirius looked almost hurt.

"Not today…" The older man replied almost pensively. "Today…" He trailed off as he looked at Harry, a storm brewing behind his twilit eyes as he silently implored the younger man to follow. Harry apprehensively followed his godfather into the dark of the Black Catacombs.

Torches lit on the stone walls beside them as they walked down a grand stone stair. Their footsteps echoed as they plunged into the shadows. Harry shivered visibly at the chilling drop in temperature as they descended. The dust cleared on the stones about their feet as they went. In several places rubescent blood stained the stone walls. Half of Harry wanted to ask about it while the other was already occupied with an uncharacteristically stiff, stoic, and mysterious Sirius.

He led Harry across the dungeons past all sorts of covered objects and strange torture devices. Harry even recognized several muggle torture devices in the midst of some of the most bizarre and hideous things he had ever seen. He thought to ask why they would be there at all, but stopped upon noticing that the several whips, brands, and various spiked implements which were bound to the wall with iron chains attempting to tear themselves free of it, lurching in their general direction as if fighting for their chance to once again cruelly bite into flesh. Nearly everything was covered with dust and dilapidated.

Suddenly Sirius came to a stop before another door so cloaked in shadow that Harry had not even seen it. It was made of malefic looking ancient iron, covered in runes, and had no doorknob. Harry watched as he ran a finger along a section of the door that rather resembled a cartouche and was in the place a doorknob might have been. The door then groaned as if it were opening and Harry felt himself being pulled forward.

Harry found himself standing on a cold stone floor, in darkness so deep that if he held his hand in front of his face he would not be able to see it. His only comfort was that he knew Sirius was there with him, as he could feel his hand wrapped tightly about his own in the suffocating darkness. It was the lone thing that stopped him from panicking or trying to bolt.

Suddenly the room was bathed in the glowing light of a thousand candles and warmth pervaded it, the cold dissipating as Sirius kept his hand in his, placed another on his shoulders and led him to the center of the large circular room where a stone table sat. A primitive dagger jagged with rust and dried blood rested atop the table.

"Harry," Sirius said somberly as he took his cheek into one of his rough calloused hands, turning him to face him. "As the last heir to the House of Black, I am recognized by the magic, both dark and light, that is everything about my family. Whether they choose to recognize me or not, the magic which guards anything and everything of my family's always will and that means that there are certain things which I can do, that no one else can." He took a long pause as if he found speaking increasingly difficult. "In the ancient days, in the days before today's proper ceremonies, there were only…only…" He stopped again visibly cursing himself for his lack of eloquence and tact as he continued to struggle to find the right words. He had wanted this to be perfect

"Sirius," Harry asked as he started to blush, knowing that if he did not help the older man he would stand there spluttering like a shy teenager indefinitely. He was the very picture of self-effacement and in a strange way, almost adorable. "Are you asking me to marry you?" He felt something warm start to curl about his insides.

"No." Sirius answered rather stiffly. Harry felt his throat drop into his stomach and tears start to form in the corners of his eyes. As he fought with the tears he watched Sirius stand awkwardly looking at the carved stone table, then to the knife, at the walls, and then back to him. "Marriage is empty. It means nothing and I want what we have…er…are…to, well, mean something." He said and Harry felt the unshed tears dry. "I don't want just another public nicety that has become a joke in a world where a person can get married and then divorced in the same day, where love might never even enter into it in the first place! I want…I brought you here to…ask you a question and hopefully make a promise in the way that my ancestors did." He then put his hands on the table and looked up at Harry, suddenly looking like the confidant foolhardy man he always had been. His eyes twinkled.

"If in two years time you still want me and will have a great old dirty brute like me, I want us bound: wizard to wizard, man to man, soul to soul, lover to lover. The very second you turn seventeen I would bind myself to you for whatever eternity's after us, if you would have me, Harry."

Sirius waited on baited breath as Harry only stood silent for what felt like an eternity. He looked dazed, as if he had strayed from a dream. "Of course I would have you!" He exclaimed finally, looking so weighted down with emotion that he could barely stand. Several happy tears absently fell from his viridian eyes and ran in silver rivulets down his bloodless cheeks.

"Then as my ancestors did, we'll make a promise and seal it in blood." Sirius then took the old iron knife and ran it across the length of Harry's palm and had Harry do the same to him. With a grimace Harry followed Sirius' lead and rubbed his open wound against the top of the stone table. Their blood mingled.

Minutes later they lifted their hands away and watched as the table began to absorb the blood. Once the table again appeared to be clean two small parts of the table rose above the rest and into the air. Rings were carved of them as if by an invisible hand as they floated in the air. Suddenly a pattern of black roses and white lilies entwined in green stems about a sword appeared on the bands which then turned shimmering white gold and flew across the table. The beautiful rings slid perfectly onto their right ring fingers.

"Merlin!" Harry exclaimed breathlessly. He watched it shimmer in the light as he moved his hand around and wriggled his fingers. The ring felt so natural there that he almost cold not tell he was wearing one. Suddenly he felt strong arms wrapped around his and lips lightly brushing his neck.

"I love you so much." Sirius said as he brushed his lips against a particularly sensitive spot behind Harry's ear. He chuckled as his young lover gasped and it turned to a groan as a firm backside was pressed against his flaccid penis. It stirred with interest as Harry continued to rub sensuously against him.

_Sirius…_

Harry hissed in Parseltongue. He felt Sirius holding back. He knew that there was probably a better place and a better time, but he didn't care. He wanted his future bonded in him. _Now. _

_Make me yours. _

He hissed again and with only one more teasing touch of his cleft against Sirius' rigid arousal he found himself pinned against the table, his mouth being devoured.

Author's Note/Review Reply

Pops: Thanks! And it was actually accidental the first three times and I decided to just stick with it.


	31. Superfreak

**_WARNING: THIS CHAPTER IS PORN! A FULL OUT, HOT AND SWEATY, GUY ON GUY (TECHNICALLY GUY ON TEENAGER), X-RATED, FUCKFEST. AND INCASE I HAVE NOT BEEN PERFECTLY CLEAR, THIS CHAPTER IS 1000 OR SO WORDS OF COMPLETE AND TOTAL GAY UNDERAGE FUCKING, SUCKING, FONDLING, BLOWING, GOBBLING, GROPING, LICKING, SWALLOWING, CUMMING, SLURPING, CORNHOLING, BITING, CHEWING, SQUIRTING, FROTTING, SQUEALING, AND OTHERWISE FORNICATING!! _**

**_IF THIS OFFENDS YOUR DELICATE SENSIBILITES, FEEL FREE TO CLOSE THIS WINDOW NOW OR READ ANYWAY AND WRITE ME A NASTY REVIEW ABOUT HOW MORALLY BANKRUPT I AM--EITHER SUITS ME. OTHERWISE, ENJOY THE SMUT WHILE IT LASTS. THERE WON'T BE MUCH MORE AS THE PLOT REALLY DOESN'T CALL FOR IT. INCASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED, I REALLY LIKE TYPING IN BIG LETTERS. _**

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They broke apart only to remove their shirts before Harry began to tantalizingly kiss, lick, and bite his way from the whorls of Sirius' ears down to where the skin of his taut stomach and trail of sparse raven hair met the top of his pants. He could both see and feel that Sirius had nothing on beneath and began to lave the older man's half-hard organ with his tongue through the thin fabric of his pants.

Harry finally mercifully peeled the knickers off of the mewling and groaning man as he felt the moistened pants become impossibly tight. With the bothersome trousers discarded he took Sirius weeping cock in his hands and tortured him with painfully light touches as he ran his tongue along the throbbing vein on the underside and around the burgeoning head. He wickedly blew gently against the tip, knowing the effect it would have on Sirius. He could barely contain his smirk as the man beneath him let out a groan.

"This will be our last time for a long while as I leave for school tomorrow." Harry said sadly and watched as all hints of pleasure fell from Sirius and his erect cock wilted slightly in his hands. Suddenly sadness left his eyes and only hunger remained. "And also our first time as bonded men." He purred and bent down as if he would finally take Sirius in his mouth only to move to the side at the last moment and lightly tugged at the hair surrounding his lover's manhood just hard enough to raise the skin and also just enough to make Sirius painfully hard. He continued his teasing until he had Sirius begging and moaning as if there was nothing else to live for other than blessed heat and friction.

Suddenly he stopped, making certain to brush the older man's prick as he leaned up to stare into his eyes. Precum leaked from the tip and just seeing Sirius in such a state aroused him more than anything ever could.

"And you're going to remember this long after I'm gone and you are going to splatter yourself with cum thinking of all of the filthy things I did to you." Sirius let out a groan, barely coherent enough to wonder where the fuck any of that had come from and too far gone to care. He let out a scream as he was suddenly encased in a familiar wet heat.

Sirius nearly came as he watched Harry's eyes become heavy and lidded and his cheeks hollow obscenely around his rock hard length only to pull away again. He found himself denied release once more as Harry began to hum as he sucked him, milking precum only to pull away just as Sirius started to fuck his mouth. Not only the surroundings, but the thought that Sirius would be his filled him with joy and newfound confidence. He felt light, without inhibitions, unbearably wanton, and _completely_ wicked.

He really _did _want Sirius to think of all of the sinful things he had done to him weeks and even months from that night and splatter himself with his essence. He wanted it to be burned into his memory so that even mention of it would make him unbelievably hard.

"I'm going to fuck myself on your cock." He breathed with a licentious grin as he pulled off his own pants and boxers and carelessly tossed them away. Sirius emitted gasps that were derived from both shock and lust as Harry positioned his entrance over Sirius' rigid tumescence. He then placed his fingers into Sirius' mouth, letting him thoroughly coat his fingers with saliva before dragging them away and roughly preparing himself.

He looked deeply into Sirius' twilit eyes as he penetrated himself, his fingers curling and thrusting wantonly as the man beneath him watched enrapt. As Sirius head fell back in pleasure Harry pulled his fingers away and impaled himself on Sirius cock in one impossibly fast motion. The older man let out something reminiscent of a scream as Harry grunted and forced himself to ride Sirius through the pain, telling himself that it would quickly subside.

Sirius groaned as he found himself encased in sheer heat. He bucked his hips wildly as he took in the sight of the man he loved most in the world riding him with reckless abandon, growling with pleasure. Soon coherent thought was lost as sensation overcame him and he came into the tight torridity, screaming his release as Harry milked him dry.

Harry heard Sirius cry and angled himself so Sirius' cock would slam into his prostate one last time. Stars exploded behind his eyes as all feeling save pleasure was ripped from him. His seed exploded over Sirius' chest, shooting in a graceful silver arc as Sirius exploded inside him, liquid heat filling him to the brim.

He reluctantly pulled free minutes later, almost immediately feeling his lover's seed leaking from him.

"Sirius…" Harry whispered as he looked over to see Sirius half-asleep in a sex induced stupor. "Sirius…" He purred again, this time more loudly and watched as Sirius languidly raised his eyes to meet his gaze. He grinned wickedly, most of the edge taken off of it by exhaustion. His muscles burned. "Drink up." He purred as he turned so his hole was before Sirius and nearly jolted forward as he felt Sirius' probing tongue enter him as he drank his own seed. Harry's member stirred slightly as Sirius finished and weakly pushed Harry over. He muttered a cleansing spell before pulling him close.

They lay in silent bliss, naked as the day they were born, on top of the old ceremonial table basking in their afterglow for a long while. They were both drifting toward a contented sleep when suddenly Harry heard Sirius chuckling and felt his chest vibrating warmly.

"What?" The young man asked through a yawn as he snuggled closer, tracing one of Sirius' many tattoos absently with his newly ringed finger.

"You're a right little freak. I think I'll remember that for…quite a while." Sirius said affectionately as he kissed Harry's cheek which he could feel blushing hotly. "And they say that _I'm _the Great Dirty Brute!"

"Keep this up and you won't experience my "freak-ness" for a _long _time." Harry replied just as good-naturedly.

"But you can't be threatening me with sex depravation. We're not even married yet!"

Harry snorted and hit Sirius lightly on the head before curling up beside him again. The pair soon fell into a peaceful sleep, wrapped securely around one another.


	32. The Heart Is Faultless

Remus growled angrily. After the petrificus totalus he had spent hours trying to summon his wand wandlessly. Finally he had succeeded only to have it slam itself haphazardly against the outside of the cupboard and make a racket until he gave up. After berating himself for another several hours the cupboard door finally swung open to reveal the hem of wonderfully gaudy purple robes and matching shoes. Remus crawled out on cramped aching limbs only to collapse at the figure's feet.

"Remus, do I want to know why you were half naked and locked in a cupboard?"

Remus looked up into the twinkling blue eyes of Albus Dumbledore and then down to his own bare chest, old scars and minor fresh injuries glaring against his pallid muscled body. His pants were torn as well and only ripped further as he vainly attempted to cover himself. He became even more subconscious as Dumbledore chuckled.

"Ah, no need to be so shy boy. It's nothing that I haven't seen before in all my years." He said through his merry chortles.

"_That's _comforting." Remus growled testily before coming back to himself. "I'm sorry." He mumbled as he stood, rubbing one of his amber eyes with one hand and brushing loose strands of light brown hair away from his face with the other. He sighed sheepishly as the headmaster watched him questioningly.

Remus found himself in a dilemma. While he was furious with Sirius and would be more than happy to sell him out he still had poor confused Harry to think of. And then again, if there was anyone he could trust with such a secret it would be Dumbledore, even if it meant earning Harry's scorn.

"Yesterday, I found Sirius reading in the library about soul binding-"

"Ah." Dumbledore interrupted knowingly and began to walk across the kitchen.

"Ah?" Remus echoed uncertainly as he followed the older wizard throughout the first floor to a corridor. He stopped and turned to face one of the walls before knocking on it and smiling.

"The houses of all old pureblood families have dungeons." He said as if that explained everything before blasting a hole large enough for three grown men to walk abreast in the wall. Remus gasped. Even when the wolf had taken him its lupine strength could not put a mere dent in that wall. He felt his fury growing as Dumbledore sighed expectantly.

"What in Merlin's name is going on?" He cried as he rubbed his temples. He could feel a headache starting to build behind his eyes.

"Sirius probably asked Harry to bind himself to him last night. Since Harry is still technically a child he could not and now they are now promised to one another. Being that they are nowhere in the house I am guessing that we are about to walk into a rather awkward situation." He finished with a chuckle and Remus nearly fainted.

"You know?"

"Yes, and I have for some time. Ah, since just about the beginning."

"And you do not find Black a despicable lecherous pedophiliac!?"

"The heart is faultless, Remus. We often cannot choose those we love." Dumbledore replied somberly, his eyes devoid of their usual twinkle, and started down the stairs. Remus followed haplessly as the old wizard descended into the dark.

Remus gulped as they walked past all of the ominous devices of torture, some enchanted ones seemingly overeager to be used again. He gulped uncomfortably as he perceived the bloodstains on the wall that he himself had made during the uncontrollable rage that accompanied his transformation.

"It would be in your best interests to learn to live with his choice." The headmaster said as he eyed an ensanguined piece of shattered glass ruefully, as if he himself had broken it.

"Choice!? What choice?! He's sick!" Remus hissed and Dumbledore spun around to look sadly at the half naked and incredibly ireful werewolf standing before him. An array of bruises, wounds, and scars decorated his pale flesh and seemed to contort as his chest heaved with emotion.

"Ah, but to entrust the very essence of your being to one who in all likelihood may not live to see their majority is a very noble act in itself, and a choice that is not made lightly, regardless of who their father might have been. Have you never thought that the same love that has earned your ire makes Sirius loathe himself?"

"Yes." Remus replied quietly after several long minutes of contemplation. "While I see his…_perverseness _as a total disrespect to the memory of James…he only thinks that he's loving and being loved and that you can't hold that against a bloke!" Remus started to fume. He had started again when suddenly he was interrupted. He looked to see a thoroughly shagged and yet clearly angry Sirius Black standing before them. His long raven hair was a mess and crimson bloomed in blotches down his neck and along his collar bones. He somehow managed to look menacing standing barefoot and slovenly in the dungeon with half of his shirt hanging off and his lips swollen.

"Harry _is not _James." He spoke evenly yet with a cold and frightening tone that could have rivaled Snape's. "Nor are children walking shrines to their parents' memories! If there is nothing more to Harry than James then there is nothing more to me than Orion!"

Silence seemed to mingle with the dust in the stale dungeon air like a shroud as the three men stood, gazing at one another. Remus looked up as if to speak when Sirius cut him off. Dumbledore then attempted to speak but was abruptly cut off as well.

"Both of you shut up." Sirius spoke quietly but with no less malice. "My intended is sleeping down there and I intend to wake him up properly before he has to go back to _your _bloody god damn institution." He pointed a finger accusingly at Dumbledore before snarling for them both to get out of his dungeons and going to wake up a still peacefully sleeping Harry.

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Author's Note/Review Relpy:

animesnape21: Squee! Yeah, had to have something kinda fluffy in here. Glad you liked it.

Alicia Spinet: No, Mpreg kind of freaks me out. It's pretty hypocritical of me considering that my fics contain or will contain almost everything else, but there you have it. I cannot make any promises about Sirius. I'll probably have a poll about it later on.

Author's Note: I am pretty sure I lost some readers a while back when I said that this wasn't Snarry. As much as I love Snarry and understand how easily it is to become hopelessly addicted to it, it still made me sad. TT If you had your heart set on this being MPREG. Lo siento. Je Regrette. Es tut mir leid. I don't do it. Hope you continue to read and enjoy anyway.


	33. I Must Not Be A Hindrance

Harry arrived at Hogwarts sleepily with swollen lips, a high collared shirt, and the dopey grin he always wore after a night with Sirius. Still feeling completely relaxed, he stumbled into the great hall just in time for lunch. He was oblivious to all of the eyes on him as he nearly skipped over to the Gryffindor table and sat beside Ron, who was surprisingly not eating anything.

"Could you be anymore obvious Harry?" He muttered as he glared at a bowl of peas as if it had personally offended him.

"Nice to see you too Ron." He said dreamily, not even beginning to notice how agitated Ron seemed.

"Harry, real world! Time to leave cloud orgasm!" Ron said as loudly as he could without drawing attention to them and then roughly shook Harry into awareness. It took a good few minutes before he succeeded.

"Sorry." Harry said genuinely apologetically before noticing how haggard and worried Ron looked. "You all right mate?"

Ron took a deep breath. "_High Inquisitor_ Umbridge was badmouthing you in DADA and 'Mione went off on her. Because she did that the old toad's now convinced that she's your girlfriend and would then know everything about…you know. Even before that she was convinced that Hermione had something to do with it and has been riding her for weeks."

"You mean…" Harry trailed off and traced a D and an A on the wooden tabletop. Ron nodded.

"She's kept her in detention for the past three nights. 'Mione said that she even used veritaserum on her and has her write "I must not be a hindrance" in some strange quill that takes the blood from your hands. The words are carved into the back of her hands!"

"Hermione couldn't tell Umbridge anything, because she doesn't know anything. You think she would have figured it out after the veritaserum didn't give her any answers."

"Right? Now she's just keeping her because she's mental, like Bellatrix Lestrange, sadistic mental." Harry sighed and turned to his pumpkin juice. He watched the almost golden orange liquid swirl around before looking back up to Ron.

"Why would Hermione stand up for me like that?"

"Believe it or not, she is incredibly sorry about the whole Cloak incident and will defend you because she respects you, even when you're not there."

"When did you start making so much sense?" Harry grumbled semi good-naturedly before turning back to his food and pumpkin juice. Ron snorted.

"Speaking of Hermione, where is she?" Harry asked as he sipped his pumpkin juice and set his eye on a large floating platter of bacon. Ron's head immediately snapped up. He looked positively petrified.

"I haven't seen her since last night when she left for detent-"

"NO!" A cry came from the doorway and the entire hall turned to see a gaunt and hysterical Hermione barely holding herself up against the doors. She looked as if all of her blood had been drained, the words "I must not be a hindrance" emblazoned in angry and weeping enflamed wounds on the backs of her ashen hands. Her clothes were stained with blood where she had wiped them. "Umbridge has put veritaserum in your juice Harry!" She screamed and Harry immediately attempted to purge all that he had drank. It would not come up. He felt it taking hold of his system as a positively vicious looking Delores Umbridge descended from the staff table.

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Author's Note/ Review Replies:

KatAndMonkey: Do you mean that you don't like the way I wrote him or that you just don't like the character in general?

animesnape21: Thanks so much!

AN: So, if any of you guys saw The Dark Knight and liked it I am also now writing a Dark Knight Fic. It's pretty twisted so if you are into that check it out. You might enjoy it.


	34. Ministry Approved

After the other professor's perfunctory attempts at reasoning with the woman she finally came to Harry. He attempted to run but was bound tightly to the wooden bench beside the table with a cruel charm. She insisted with vehemence that "dark times call for dark measures".

"Mr. Potter," The witch trilled with a coldness that surpassed even Snape's. She came upon him as if he were prey. "You do know what happens to those who break very important school rules, don't you?"

"If Hermione's anything to go by they are tortured." He answered before he could stop himself and mentally kicked himself as the entire hall gasped. He found that he could not stop his lips from moving. "I suppose Dumbledore might stop you from torturing innocent students if he still had any _real _authority here. Tell me, is that _ministry approved_?" He gestured toward Hermione with his eyes. As soon as the thought "What the fuck did you give me?" crossed his mind the words poured from his lips. Dumbledore seemed to visibly shrink slightly, but no one noticed as the only person in the room who was not watching Harry had his dark eyes locked on Hermione.

"Fuck! I say whatever I think! What kind of veritaserum is this?" He called and Umbridge smiled menacingly.

"The _ministry approved _kind, dear_._" She said mockingly. "Tell me Mr. Potter, is your girlfriend helping you cover up a secret organization of Dumbledore's comprised of those who oppose Fudge and wish to overthrow him!"

"No!" He called out.

"Is Dumbledore the head of a secret organization?"

"Yes!" Harry spat as painful tears streamed down his face. His entire body was wracked with agonizing spasms as he attempted to fight answering. The entire hall became silent as they looked up at a clearly flabbergasted Dumbledore. Umbridge smiled brightly.

"Are you involved?"

"Yes!" He said through clenched teeth.

"Are students being trained as we speak in Dumbledore's army?!" Several students fainted. A deathly silence overcame the hall as Harry fought and struggled like mad. He swore he felt his bonds tighten as if they were attempting to wring the answer from a broken body.

"Yes!" Blood was dripping down his chin from where he had bitten into his tongue, trying to hold back the words.

"Where are they being taught?"

"In the Room of Requirement!"

"Who is teaching them?"

"Me!" He cried. "Dumbledore doesn't even-"

"I do not believe that I asked you a ques-"

"He doesn't-"

"MR. POTTER!" She bellowed. "You will only speak when spoken to!" Harry let out a string of more colorful words. Umbridge was nearly furious when suddenly she noticed a flash of silver showing between the ropes. Unbeknownst to Harry his gloves had come off as she had tied him. "What do I see glimmering there?" She asked, her head arush from the illusion of power.

"No!" Harry shrieked through spasms as he followed her eye line to where his hand was.

"Umbridge! Stop!" Dumbledore commanded in a voice that could have scared the bravest of men into submission and she only laughed as Harry continued to writhe in agony.

"Sit down old fool, you no longer have any authority here." She said and Snape rose.

"Umbridge…" Severus growled menacingly but was interrupted when Harry finally called out in a hoarse voice.

"An engagement ring!" He had bitten cleanly through his lip in an attempt to stifle his cries. The hall gasped. Umbridge squealed girlishly. The implications of such a thing would make for absolutely delicious gossip. Ron and Hermione both paled. Dumbledore put his head in his hands. Snape's uncharacteristic outburst of " Holy mothercunting fuck" thankfully was lost amidst the other similar exclamations from the rest of the hall.

"I always knew Potter was a poof." Malfoy whispered to the nearest Slytherin.

"How lovely dear! My friend Rita Skeeter will have a field day!" She exclaimed and Harry spit on her, staining her with more blood than actual spit. She spelled it away and smiled malignly. "And pray tell, dear, who would the lucky man be?"

Harry fought with everything he had in him not to speak. He grasped at the sides of his chair and kicked. He hoped that soon the pain would become so unbearable that he would fall unconscious.

"IABESCO!"

"S-" He began but stopped as finally darkness took him. The occupants of the great hall looked from an unconscious, bloody Harry Potter to Hermione who still stood in between the doors that led to the rest of the castle. Her wand was raised and pointed at Harry and an enraged Snape stood behind her with his arms folded, glowering at Umbridge.

Umbridge turned to face the pair, still completely power drunk. "What did I tell you about being a hindrance?" She asked, followed by a short bitter chuckle.

"Come, Hermione. We are going to the hospital wing." Snape said in his usual dry tone and reached for her arm.

"She, is going back to detention!" Umbridge insisted and Severus sighed tepidly.

"She has lost a dangerous amount of blood and was incredibly weak to begin with. It is a miracle that she made it here at all. In your depravity did you simply think to leave her locked in your office to die while you attempted to make your insatiable thirst for whatever _little _power the browbeating of children provides you with not look like some form of mental illness?"

For the first time in his life Snape had entire room, full of nearly a thousand people, rooting for him. A good number looked as if they could have kissed him. Hermione smiled to herself as his statement was more than a little hypocritical.

"She has broken the rules-"

"Oh, and bleeding insufferable know-it-alls to death is perfectly legal." Umbridge began to stutter. "While I am sure there is no exact law against it, it would really go against my conscience to send a student to her death, even if the world could use a good few less Gryffindors." She continued to attempt to regain control of the situation, even though no almost no one had ever managed to best Severus Snape in a game of wits. She had lost and judging by the grins on the faces of everyone in the room, she was the only one left uninformed. "Fortunately, I am a mere Potions Master and it is not within my job description to do the world any favors. Come along Hermione." He said and nearly carried the poor girl out of the hall. An unconscious Harry, still tethered, suddenly floated into the air and followed the pair out.

"You are too modest." Hermione muttered before falling completely unconscious. Snape smirked and nearly twitched when he realized that it had become a smile (and one that would not kindly disappear at that)!

In the commotion that followed Draco was able to discreetly scribble a note on a piece of paper and send it off with his owl. His father had always told him to keep a close watch of Gryffindor's golden boy and report to him if anything interesting should happen. He had judged the recent turn of events to be fairly noteworthy. It read:

_Father, _

_Potter is apparently a homosexual and engaged to one of his fellows (leave it to Dumbledore's favorite tool to make a Friday afternoon luncheon into a great dirty fiasco). _

_, Just thought that you should know _

_Draco _

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Author's Note/Review Reply:

animesnape21: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Well, er...ok...

KatAndMonkey: I don't particularly like Dumbledore as a character either. In the later books he really just started to get on my nerves.

Does anyone else think that John Noble plays a kick ass whack job?

RAnDOM THANK YOU TIME!!

To my reviewers: KatAndMonkey, animesnape21, Alicia Spinet, Pops, moony-is-a-werewolf, doralinda, hi-purr, Naruka, cookie monster, Noc007, huh?, KnowingDivine, DebsTheSlytherinSnapefan, munchnzoey, and HeatherLB.

To the C2 community: Interesting Harry things

To my favoriters: Asphyxiatedmuse, Azil, BadFAith81, darling-Angel-Puff, DebsTheSlytherinSnapefan, Jemma 82, KatAndMonkey, animesnape21, blackkitsue, brzoskwinia, moony-is-a-werewolf, munchnzoey, natalie668, puppyscreensavers, serenityba, and taylor-966.

To my alerters: Alicia Spinet, AriannaMorgana, Azil, BadFAith81, Beladera, Brea45, Crogi-Girl, Draky, Erynia, HELLSFLAME666, Hatechild, HeatherLB, Jemma 82, KnowingDivine, Koinaka, Naruka, Snape Heiress, ThexBlackxRose, animesnape21, crimsonphoenix13, doralinda, gabicoesil, if i only had a name..., king40, loveshouse, marble121, mashkitkat, moony-is-a-werewolf, natalie668, silverlilypetal, taylor-996, and zoebeansmommy.


	35. Chapter 35

After several hours of lying in the hospital wing incapacitated Harry had started screaming and attempted to sleep walk out. Being that in his sleep he had no inhibitions and used his full power to fight whatever was clearly attacking him in his nightmare; it had taken five fully grown wizards to stop him. He had made it out into the hall before the five had even succeeded and one he had hexed nearly to death.

Then Madame Pomfrey decided to restrain him. Soon after in an angry fit the restraints which kept him bound to the bed burst into flames by some sort of wandless magic. Harry cried in agony as his scar burst and began to bleed. It was then that Madame Pomfrey decided that it would be best to administer Dreamless Sleep to young Potter. She had only to find Professor Snape.

She sent one student to his classroom, one teacher to his chambers, and other messengers to various places to fetch the cantankerous professor. All returned without him. When the last messenger returned alone she let out an annoyed cry; Harry might have calmed at the moment but his fits seemed to grow worse and worse.

"Where on earth could that man be?" She cried.

"Why don't you just go to his stores and take the potion out. Even Snape probably wouldn't be _that _mad, with the circumstances and all." One of the students added in the hopes of being helpful. Pomfrey groaned.

"The last time I went to his stores in the hopes of taking a potion my hand had to be magicked back on." She said and held up her right hand. There was indeed a faint line around her wrist. The students present gasped.

"FUCKING DIE!" Everyone in the room jumped and one student fainted. Harry was writhing in his bed screaming in a now hoarse voice. Dumbledore had just arrived and stood in the doorway looking as shaken and wracked with worry as anyone would have ever seen him beneath heavy invisibility charms.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM! GET AWAY FROM HIM! GET AWAY…"

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Review Replies:

animesnape21: Nothing. I was just feeling kind of manic that day. And yeah, it probably will be Snermoine. If you want to kill Umbridge you will be very pleased in a few chapters.

KatAndMonkey: Thanks! I try. And I agree with you, Snape's a beast... Rowling totally under-utilized all of her best characters unless she was killing them off. Even then she down-played them in most cases.

AN: Happy Rosh Hashana to my fellow Jews! And I'm sorry if I spelled it wrong. I am actually a practicing witch born Jew, so I'm not up on the crazy holiday spellings.


	36. Of A Lesser Darkness

Hermione looked up from the rich green duvet on which she sat. The Potions Master had told her that after a quick rest and some food she would feel fine. She had slept nearly five hours on the divan within the parlor of his chambers only to wake up still feeling rather dizzy and groggy. She had thought to report this to Snape and sat up only for her head to start to spin and collapse again with a groan. She briefly wondered where Snape had gotten to before the oddness of the situation set in.

_I am sleeping in Professor Snape's chambers._ She thought as she felt an itch on her stomach and lazily reached down to scratch it. As she pulled up the large white shirt she was wearing in order to better get at the bothersome itch she realized that she did not recognize the shirt.

_And wearing his clothes!_ Her mind screamed as she fought to remember why. She then looked to the backs of her hands. Where there used to be swollen enflamed wounds there were neatly wrapped bandages.

_Because mine were stained with blood…_

Her mind quieted with that fact. She then played the previous hours in her head; after leaving Harry in the infirmary Snape had more or less carried her to his chambers where he had deposited her on the parlor couch. There she assumed she had fallen unconscious as her memory faded. She had awakened the first time to find her wounds bandaged and Snape sitting in a chair nearby looking rather worried and holding a book he had been pretending to read upside down. A small pile of clothes and a tray of food floated beside him.

"You're awake." He said stiffly but his eyes smiled.

"Yes." She replied quietly as she attempted to sit up, this time more slowly and still could not muster the strength. Suddenly she felt lithe fingers and strong arms guiding her up.

"Too dizzy." She murmured and Snape allowed her to lay back down.

"It is as I feared." He said breathily after a few minutes. Hermione's head spun as she looked up, imploring him to explain with her eyes as she feared she would vomit if she opened her mouth. Her entire body felt as if it were on fire. "You have lost a lot of blood which made you weak. This in turn made you especially susceptible to the dark magic which gave Umbridge's quill its…more _intriguing _uses."

_How does he know about that? _Hermione thought and was shocked when Snape answered.

"I have seen such things before and you forget that I have the skill to penetrate the mind."

_Oh. So, that is why I feel so horrible._

"What ails you?" He asked evenly as if out of habit but his dark eyes betrayed his worry.

_I am weak and I feel as though I have been beaten and that should I open my mouth to speak everything I have eaten since I was three will come pouring out. Other than that I do not think I have ever been better. _

"Sarcasm has no place in such circumstances. Hermione…" He trailed off suddenly looking incredibly somber. Hermione gasped.

_No! I cannot be dying. The quill was of a lesser darkness and could not have possessed such-_

"You had gone a matter of months with little sleep, little food, and little desire to continue living. You did not care for the wounds the quill gave you and so they became infected. Your strength was low and you had no way to heal the wounds let alone fight the either the magical or mundane infection. Even after that you had continued exposure to it for days."

_Then why am I not in the hospital wing!?_

At this Snape seemed to shrink into himself. "Because, it would seem, there is no legal way to save you."

_And you know the illegal way and intend to use it?_

"Yes."

_What are the consequences? For you and for me?_

"Hermione…I-" He began to splutter and she abruptly cut him off.

_The only kind of illegal magic is dark magic and every such abominable act has repercussions. _

"There would not be any…were I not branded a death eater."

Hermione's eyes became wide. _You intend to bequeath a segment of your being unto me. _

"Yes."

_And being that your soul and magic are bound by the dark mark I could be bound to a fate similar to yours. _

Snape nodded. "Only, you are not of pure blood or even half blood."

_What would that mean for me?_

"Truthfully, I can not say." He replied gravely and they sat in silence for a few long minutes.

_What would that mean for __**you**__?_

Snape only looked at her as if his eyes alone could repeat his prior statement. Ebony met warm brown briefly before he looked away. "Even my essence, as marred and decrepit as it is would be enough. I do not know what that would mean for either you or I, but know that I would be more than willing if you are amenable." He said and watched as Hermione looked up at him with both pity and curiosity and…something else as well. "Please, do not look at me that way. I have sacrificed much more for much less." He said as his hand drifted absently to clasp his arm where the dark mark must have been. Hermione suddenly noticed that instead of his usual bat-like robes he was wearing only a form-fitting white shirt similar to the one she wore and black pants. He must have normally worn layers of clothing as he appeared far slimmer and smaller in simply the shirt and pants.

_But why sacrifice anything at all for a Gryffindor mudblood?_ _Why not just let me die?_

"I…" He stammered offhandedly looking to the corners of his room as if they held an answer. "It is all a matter of gaining Potter's trust." He said in a voice absolutely absent of conviction and sincerity. Hermione could see this plainly.

_I am no tool to be used at the will of another, Severus._

"Hermione, please!" He gasped, his entire façade cracking a before her. "We haven't the time to play games! Will you live or will you…will you…" He trailed off again, seemingly unable to even vocalize something of such a macabre nature.

_Die?_

Hermione flinched but eventually grumbled a hesitant yes. He looked near tears before straightening up. His mask fell back into place.

"You must do as you will of course. It is no one else's choice to make. I will return within the hour. You do not have much longer than that." He then fled the room. Hermione broke down in tears the second the door shut.

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Review Reply/ Author's Note:

KatAndMonkey: cool. That's exactly what I'm going for.

animesnape21: Dear Dolores will be dealt with...mwahaha!!

AN: There was an Obama ralley at my school today. Obama really is an inspiring speaker. He may even be less full of shit than John McCain. I hate politicians...


	37. Pros and Cons

Ron had fallen asleep beside Harry's bed in the hospital wing the previous night. The castle was abuzz. Hermione had gone missing and if she wasn't found within the next day or so Umbridge would be shipped off to Azkaban for murder, Snape was nowhere to be found, and Dumbledore had apparently been put in restraints and was being dragged away by a group of twelve aurors who were taking him to the ministry for interrogation when he went up in flames and disappeared as he muttered something to the degree of "Merlin's Balls I'm going quietly with you fools!". At least, that was how rumor had it.

Not to mention that the boy who lived was apparently engaged…to another man! Gossips had free range and every wizard paper was filled with theories on who his mate was. Everything from vampires to Ron Weasley to Voldemort filled countless pages in pointless papers and magazines.

It was nearly one in the morning on the Monday following the incident when he was suddenly awakened by an almost inhuman shriek from Harry. Ron looked up to see his gaunt friend sitting upright stiffly in his bed, holding his head and shaking. He watched warily, uncertain as to whether his friend was awake or suffering another night terror. It soon became abundantly clear that he was sleeping as he again muttered something about "them being here" and indicating wildly into the dark with a trembling finger. Ron almost fainted upon seeing a silhouette approaching from the shadows.

"Show yourself!" He called in a voice that he had meant to sound menacing but sounded more as if he were about to wet himself as his shakily brandished his wand.

A faint _Lumos _was heard from the dark and suddenly the face of Hermione Granger appeared above a tenuous glow in the dim.

"Mione!" Ron nearly squealed from the dark as she approached. Thankfully he failed to notice that she brandished no wand and it was merely her hands that were glowing so eerily. Were he a little bit more perceptive it would certainly have raised a few questions. Were he anyone else he also might have noticed that her entire air had changed. There was something almost sinister about her as she stalked forward and bent over the sleeping Harry.

"He owes me an apology." She muttered dryly in a very nonchalant Snape-like fashion. Ron was still oblivious.

"Mione! You're a ghost!" He exclaimed quietly. His eyes wide.

"There are worse things one could be." She said and Ron reached out and grabbed her wrist to find her quite solid. An extraordinarily undignified squeal escaped him.

"But…but how?" He stammered and Hermione sighed.

"I stole several potions from Snape's stores to fix myself up. Unfortunately some were…less than legal and worked rather obviously so I had to hide in the dungeons while they worked." The lies just rolled off of her tongue as if by instinct. Snape had told her that the part of himself she had been given would start to blend more naturally with her own personality in time, however at the moment it not only gave her wandless and wordless magic abilities, access to almost all of his thoughts, and seemed to intensify every trait the young witch possessed that seemed more Slytherin than Gryffindor (cunning and subtlety) tenfold. However there were several rather cataclysmic cons.

"Woah." Ron replied. "How did you even get in? I heard he has them password guarded."

"He does." Hermione said, honestly having no idea but assuming that he would have something far cleverer guarding it, such as a nasty ward or four after the last time they managed to steal from him. She smirked at the thought. "The password is Lilly." She said and Ron only looked at her blankly.

"But, wasn't that Harry's mum's name?"

"Yes." Hermione replied coolly and Ron gasped.

"Honestly, why else do you think Snape would hate both Harry's father and Harry so much?" Truthfully Remus had told her the entire story over the summer, but it didn't seem salient that Ron should know that.

Ron gasped and Hermione rolled her eyes. She took a seat in a chair she conjured beside Harry's bed. Ron watched as she propped her feet up on the side rail of the hospital bed and cast a barely visible wordless and wandless lumos. She seemed to play with it between her fingertips, observing it with delight as it gained strength. The scene made Ron incredibly uneasy. He nearly screamed when the faint swirling ball of light took on ominous green phosphorescence.

"Umm Mione…" Ron muttered apprehensively. "What are you doing?"

"I cast a lumos." She said shortly as she seemed to toss it several feet up into the air and let it fall back to her fingertips.

"I didn't hear you say anything." Ron said and Hermione sighed impatiently.

"Courtesy of a certain potion I can now do wordless magic."

"Then where is your wand?"

"It is called wandless magic, Ron."

"So, you are doing wandless wordless magic, then?" Ron asked suspiciously and Hermione nodded in acquiescence. "I don't think even Dumbledore could do that."

"Dumbledore could materialize a flock of agitated violently yellow flamingos both wordlessly and wandlessly with his dying breath to communicate the secret of life in an Old Flemish folk tune if he chose to do so." Hermione replied flatly.

"Yeah, but why on earth would he do that?"

"Who knows, all though I cannot say that it would surprise me if he were to do something so utterly ridiculous." She said and Ron only stared at her, finally noticing that something was off.

"Hermione, are you feeling okay?"

"Well enough." She replied, attempting to sound less smug and caustic but failing miserably. "Sorry, it is just that the potions have caused some bizarre reaction and I am very…on edge."

Ron seemed to accept this and turned back to watching Harry. Within minutes he had fallen asleep again and started to snore. Hermione cast a quick memory charm on him and sat back in the chair she had conjured before turning to watch Harry sleep. While the part of her that was organically Hermione looked at him with the fondness a mother would and wanted to know every detail of how Sirius had proposed the part of her that was Snape could not decide whether it loathed the brat or the mutt more.

"This cannot be good." Hermione whispered aloud and the inner voice reminiscent of Snape chuckled humorlessly.

It was approximately 2:15 am when she suddenly felt a dull ache in her forearm. As Harry sat up screaming and clutching his forehead hard enough to draw blood the dull ache became almost unbearable agony. She put a silencing charm around herself as she held the arm and continued to writhe miserably in the throes of affliction. The snake moved and hissed menacingly beneath her skin.

It was _worse _than she had anticipated.

* * *

animesnape21: Not for a while, but it will happen. And it will be HOT!

KatAndMonkey: Well, that's kind of how I work. Sorry to say things don't get much better for dear Hermy.

AN: House and Fringe are not on tonight and that makes me depressed. It's not a tuesday without my Hugh Laurie fix...sigh...


	38. Inbred Twits

Snape moaned as he sat up in his bed, clutching his burning forearm. Somewhere he could feel Hermione suffering a similar fate and knew that her arm would pain her until she attended the meeting, which she would not. In all likelihood she would suffer the pain that came with denying her new master's call for hours.

Knowing that there was nothing for it he dressed quickly, not in his usual robes as they took too long to get into, and flooed to the Riddle house. He walked in his slow graceful fashion out of the fireplace and into a dim dilapidated parlor. The death eaters all stood in a circle with Voldemort sitting in a chair before them all.

"My Lord." They said in unison, bowing as Snape attempted to sneak in beside Dolohov unobtrusively. He masterfully hid a cringe as Voldemort's inhuman eyes came to rest on him. He was the last to arrive and began to steel himself for the punishment that he knew would come. He attempted to brace himself for, what he knew from experience, would be unbearably agonizing as a cruel smile twisted Voldemort's grey lips. Without preamble he called _Crucio_ and Snape was laying on the floor in the middle of the circle, writhing in agony.

His bones were on fire, his muscles were seizing violently, and his head felt as if someone were repeatedly attempting to kick it in. He screamed and screamed for the longest minute of his life. Finally it was taken off and he fell limp, almost unable to move.

"Such disrespect will not be tolerated. You will come when you are called half-breed." Voldemort spat and Snape slowly rose, his legs weak and shaking beneath him but his face stoic.

"Yes, my lord." He said evenly and moved back to the circle where he again took a place beside Dolohov. Voldemort looked to Lucius Malfoy and they seemed to have a silent conversation for several long minutes before Malfoy began.

"As it would seem, we have been going about the entire Potter situation the wrong way." He began with his superior air. Snape fought the urge to roll his eyes once again, skillfully remaining emotionless.

_Do you really think so? As you morons have not succeeded in killing the brat yet that is to be assumed. _

"As circumstance would have it we need him alive and to come willingly to us-"

_That's new… _

"and it will not be long now until we have him within our grasp."

_Yes! They are going to get Black. Not that he doesn't deserve a few rounds of torture, but I suppose I shall __**have **__to inform Dumbledore. Ah, oh well. _

"You see Draco, clever boy that he is, has informed me that Potter is engaged."

Several of the older Death Eaters who were not as in the loop or did not read the papers gasped.

"Ah, but not only is the wretched boy engaged and underage, but he is the one wearing the ring."

As less people were aware of this fact, more gasped or let out other exclamations of shock.

"How is that possible Malfoy?" One of the oldest Death Eaters, a grey man of poor temper named Ulric Engstrom, queried. "Even among the uncivilized it is custom for a man to give such a ring to a woman. In our world the magic would not be binding otherwise."

"Ah, but Engstrom, a man did give him the ring." Malfoy replied and Engstrom began to splutter.

_So, technically our androgynous little Potter is the woman? Ha, James would be so proud. _

"What an abomination! That is not even possible! Why, the outrage! Two men fucking like rats-"

"Peace, Engstrom." Malfoy replied in his quiet yet sensuously chilling drawl. "Among the customs of the Purebloods true marriage by ancient custom is defined as the joining of kindred souls. His kindred spirit has taken a male form, but the binding witchery recognized the soul and not the testicles."

"And what half decent pureblooded wizard would be such a wretch!?" Engstrom cried, completely incensed. The faces of the others mirrored his question.

_Hmm, I wonder. Let us see how long it takes them to figure it out. Oh. the suspense... Inbred twits. _

"Could it be that Weasley boy?" Bellatrix called.

_Yes, and I was late because I was posing for the centerfold in Witch Weekly. After all, you know what they say about big noses..._

"Weasley would know nothing of ancient custom." Her husband replied. "In fact, I doubt that any of the Weasleys would. They are just as good as mudbloods"

Snape stood silently, watching them all throw out random names for nearly an hour before becoming agitated. He just wanted to go home and go to bed. After all, they would _have_ to figure it out eventually.

"Lestrange." He said in his resonant voice and the rest of the Death Eaters fell silent. Both Bellatrix and Rudolphus looked at him from across the circle.

"Bellatrix, tell me if what I am about to say _reminds_ you of anyone in particular." He said and her eyes narrowed. "Spat in the face of family customs and traditions, sorted into Gryffindor, fraternized with mudbloods, half-breeds, and other undesirables; displaced as a teenager for refusing to join our noble cause, later burned off of the family tree for his choice in _companionship _, a blood traitor. Only wore muggle clothes and smoked muggle cigreths (or whatever those vial things are called), then later became an integral member of the very group that aids the Potter Brat. Apparently, at the very top of that list of _impressive_ credentials he is a pedophile as well."

The only female death eater's eyes narrowed even further. "Sirius." She spat and Snape nodded.

KatAndMonkey: Right on.

n0b0dysang31: Yeah, pretty much. You don't even know that HALF of it! And thank you so much. I had actually never written smut before and was pretty unsure about it. I am not much of a sirius/Harry fan myself. I prefer Snarry, to be honest. Originially I wanted this to be Snarry but the plot that evolved (almost on its own) was so good that I couldn't ignore it. And Harry is a kinky bastard. Lol.

AN: Happy yom kippur to all you jews out there! Oh, and if you are looking for a good new band to listen to, check out Rev Theory. They are fucking amazing. The song Falling Down is especially sexy. You probably won't love it at first but by the time the second chorus comes around you'll be ready to go start a fucking one-man revolution.


	39. Remember That

The pain had left Harry hours ago, although apparently it had been just what he needed to finally awaken. Watching Snape be nightmarishly crucio-ed and then the rather morbid death eater meeting had done nothing to perpetuate peaceful sleep. He awakened with a jolt to the dark of the hospital wing and after piecing his memories together he got a pretty good idea of what had happened. He then looked to his left to see Ron sleeping awkwardly in a chair by his bed, snoring away. A soothing azure ambience hung in the air about him He smiled and then looked to his right to see Hermione.

He was unsure of how to feel. The only thing he was certain of was that he owed her more than he could give. Any such thoughts disappeared as he finally perceived a silvery ambience, another flecked with deep miserable greys and browns seemingly in conflict as it was most unstable, and another sinister black one swirling about her.

"What?" He mumbled sleepily as he finally noticed that she was writhing about in silent agony, clutching her forearm. Dried tears left trails on her face. He then noticed another faintly sparkling semblance surrounding her which he recognized as a silence charm.

_Since when can I see magic?_ He thought as suddenly he heard a faint hissing and looked to see that the dark presence he had recognized swirling about Hermione resembled a serpent. Then it registered in his mind.

There was a black serpentine aura whispering evil things in Parseltongue entwined about Hermione. His scar had just been hurting, he had caught brief glimpses of a death eater meeting (mostly Snape being put under the Cruciatus by Voldemort and fleeting scenes of Lucius Malfoy speaking), and Hermione was sitting beside him writhing in pain and clutching her arm where he knew the dark mark to be placed. Just as he became fully conscious all of the semblances of light and color surrounding both Hermione and Ron disappeared.

Soon after Hermione's screams ceased and the silence charm fell. She weakly looked up into the wide and questioning eyes of Harry Potter.

"Hermione…" He began and the aforementioned witch hung her head. There was a certain darkness about her that was not there before. In his last memory of her she was standing by the doors looking beaten and gaunt, blood dripping from her hands as she attempted to warn him of Umbridge. All though she had not succeeded in stopping Umbridge she had risked much in her attempt. Hermione had tried despite the rift between them to save him.

"Thank you." He said quietly and her head rose. She looked into his eyes. Even in the faint light he could tell that they were darker. She looked at him questioningly. "Even after all that happened you tried to…to…why?"

He watched as a pitcher of water and cup appeared in her hands out of thin air and she poured him a cup. He realized how thirsty he was as it levitated over to him. He hadn't heard her say a spell or even seen her wand. She took his hand as he drank.

"Regardless of circumstance, I will always stand by you Harry. Even when you feel you are alone in the world, I am still on your side." She said quietly. Her voice was thin and weary but completely sincere. There was something dark clinging about her words, like blood clings to a brandished knife. "Remember that." She finished and Harry only looked up at her. They sat in silence for a while before Harry finally spoke.

"Can you cast a lumos?" Harry asked and Hermione nodded. Harry gasped as phosphorescent emerald orbs appeared at the tips of her fingers. She held the light beneath her face, allowing her features to be illuminated by the viridian glow.

Harry's eyes grew wide. While the person before him still looked like Hermione, the being trapped beneath her now darker eyes was calculating and cold and dangerous. The air about her had changed to something almost aristocratic and frightening. Harry felt as if he were being pierced by the unwavering gaze of some sort of dark creature as the swirling green light reflected perfectly in her almost black eyes.

"What did Umbridge do to you?" He asked as he reached out and touched her face lightly with the back of his hand to find it chilled.

"Nothing that even merits travesty in comparison to all of your misfortunes." She said and the faint lumos disappeared. "Soon I will tell you, but I must leave now." She said and pulled away from his touch. "Tell no one that you have seen me."

"Where are you go…" But he trailed off as Hermione had already disappeared. The chair beside his bed she had obviously conjured, along with the pitcher and cup disappeared moments later.

_Hermione has a dark mark? _

_I can see magic? _

_I just saw a death eater meeting… _

_I just saw into Voldemort's mind!? _

Memories of waking in Grimmauld Place after Voldemort's attack resurfaced. He recalled seeing similar ambiences surrounding Sirius and Remus. Along with these memories surfaced others of either nightmares or visions he had seen during that time.

These last thoughts whirred about in Harry's rather groggy mind before his body's need for rest overwhelmed him. Darkness took him as cold laughter and pained screams rang in his ears.

* * *

Review Reply/ Author's Note:

KatAndMonkey: Thanks. I love writing Snape.

AN: I hate my girlfriend...sigh...


	40. Sigillium Labrum

"…late Mr. Weasley…"

"…bloody hell I'm…"

"…language…"

"…staying…"

Harry groaned as he awoke again. There were angry voices screaming about him.

"…understandable but…"

"…and only if…"

Harry let out a louder groan as he opened his eyes and the light burned them. This stopped the quarreling and immediately two indiscriminate blobs were standing over him.

"Harry!" The one to the left exclaimed and he recognized the voice as Ron's. "You're finally awake!"

"Get out Mr. Weasley!" The blob on the right trilled and Harry immediately recognized it as Madame Pomfrey.

"I'm staying with Harry!" As Ron proclaimed this he placed Harry's glasses on his face and the entire world fell back into focus. In addition to his best redheaded friend and the plump middle aged nurse he saw an uncomfortably large group of students skirting the perimeter of the room gawking at the scene. His body tensed in anger upon seeing the last person he wanted to standing with a group of his fellow Slytherins.

"What, can't bare the thought of four hours without your fiancée?" He said with his usual glib tone and Harry growled as snit's cronies laughed and snorted in chorus.

"Why don't you go fuck yourself Malfoy." He snarled weakly from the bed. Pomfrey gasped and the other students "ooh-ed".

"That's it! Everyone out!" Madame Pomfrey bellowed and Harry only managed a muffled "no" just in time to keep his best mate by him. Being the state that her patient was in Pomfrey could not refuse him. She only sighed and went to shooing away the nosier of Hogwarts' students.

"How are you feeling?" Ron asked as he sat beside Harry's bed.

"All right." Harry replied in a hoarse voice. In truth, his throat felt as if it were about to bleed and his entire body seemed to have been stressed beyond the braking point. His muscles stretched and throbbed against his bones. Ron only shook his head.

"Yeah, you can barely talk." The redhead answered with a good-natured huff and Harry smiled weakly. Suddenly his eyes went wide.

"Ron, what's happened to Dumbledore? I sold him out to the ministry! Are they sending him off to Azkaban…" Harry would have continued in his hysterical tirade until his throat gave out had he finally not recognized Ron's grin and demanded to know what the hell he was smiling about at a time like this.

"Rumor has it that as they were taking him away he burst into flame and disappeared after muttering something about not going quietly."

Harry let out a massive sigh of relief. "Do you know where he is?"

"No, but I think its better that way." Ron said and Harry nodded in agreement. It was then that Harry noticed that Ron looked as if he had been crying.

"Hermione's gone missing!" Ron exclaimed miserably and Harry nodded, forcing his eyes to open wide in questioning surprise. He wondered exactly where she was hiding and what exactly she was playing at.

"Yeah, after Snape carried her out of the hall she was taken to the infirmary. Madame Pomfrey went to check you over first as she was still conscious. After Pomfrey finished with you she went to check over Hermione and she was gone!"

"But…why…where…" His incoherent mumblings as the wheels in his groggy mind spun passed as frightened confusion well enough.

"I don't know." Ron said quietly. "But if she's not found soon Umbridge will be going to Azkaban for her murder. I heard that her blood was all over her office…" He trailed off and put his head in his hands.

Harry gasped. He attempted to tell himself over and over again that Hermione was not doing what he thought she was doing as Ron silently sobbed in the chair beside him.

_What about her parents? _

_What about Ron? _

_The Hermione I know would never have… _

_Yes, but the Hermione you knew didn't have the dark mark tattooed on her arm._ His common sense hissed at him as Ron wept beside him with absolutely no comfort.

_I don't know that she does!_ He argued internally, the sounds of Ron's stifled sobs burning him to the core in a cruel cadence.

_I can't do this to Ron! _He eventually decided and looked to the sobbing red head. "Ron," He began and the poor boy looked at him. Harry opened his mouth as if to speak and tell him that Hermione was definitely…alive (all though exactly how well she was, was debatable as far as he was concerned) but he found that his lips would not cooperate.

_She's alive! I just saw her!_ His mind screamed but his lips would not respond. Ron's head fell back into his hands. He was oblivious to Harry's struggle.

_Ron! You don't have to do that! Hermione is- _

Harry fell unconscious.

Author's Note/ Review Replies.

KatAndMonkey: You'll just have to wait and see.

Author's Note: I am starting to think that I have pulled an Eragon…not only have I shamelessly ripped off another's work, but my protagonist spends so much time unconscious that I am starting to wonder if he got narcolepsy along with the wicked scar. Ah, oh well. At least I don't make any money off of this…


	41. Prophecy?

Hermione sighed from the couch she had frequented for the majority of the past few days. She reading quietly until Snape stormed out of the fireplace. He looked furious as he stalked about his parlor. His robes billowed about him. Hermione knew better than to disturb him and kept on reading until she felt the man's eyes piercing her. She looked up and saw that he looked completely incensed.

"How can you sit here in _my _house reading one of _my _books as if nothing is wrong when I am in such a state only feet from you!?" He hollered and she looked at him with tepid interest.

"I figured that if it was that important you would tell me and that if you didn't want to tell me I would simply find out later." She said and returned to her book. Snape let out a growl. He did not like the fact that Hermione was invading his thoughts at will. He knew that the old Hermione would not even have dreamed about being so disrespectful.

"You cannot stay in my house forever, Hermione. An innocent woman is going to spend the rest of her life in Azkaban if you do not come forward! Think of your friends and your family. The more you prolong your stay the harder it will be to once again come to terms with the world."

"And you would call Umbridge innocent?" She drawled dryly and flipped the book she had been reading closed. Snape fumed. "I am no longer the witch I was. I would not be surprised if Dumbledore could feel that all the way from Hogwarts. Within minutes of seeing me he would know exactly what has happened. What if my death was part of his plan?"

"What do you…" He trailed off and looked at her suspiciously. "You know of his plans?"

Hermione half-nodded as if she did not truly want to answer the question and knew that Snape would not make her. "Perhaps."

"You did not enter _his _mind did you?"

The witch sighed. Snape screamed at her for a good few minutes before finally calming. "How did you do it? _I _could not even do that!"

"You have never tried." She said and Snape stared at her open mouthed. Of course he had never tried! It was fucking _Dumbledore _that they were talking about. He found himself unwillingly astonished by her audacity.

"Well, regardless he is insane if he thinks that any of this will actually work. Putting a skinny kid with a few tricks up his sleeve against one of the most powerful wizards who has ever lived is the equivalent of signing his death warrant, prophecy or no." She stood and Snape watched in silence as she continued her tirade. "How could anyone obviously believe that if Harry was matched against Voldemort he even had the slightest chance at victory? It's insanity! I mean, I truly do love Harry and all but he is not much of a weapon. Gryffindor courage or no he barely has the skill to fend off Malfoy and is both emotionally and mentally unstable.

'Think about it, Voldemort might have died years ago if Dumbledore was not so set on waiting for Harry! Innocent lives would have been spared! As gallant and noble as the side of "light" is, it could never beat Voldemort in a fair fight. You have to know this idealism will be our downfall. The days are growing darker and we must adapt as even in ten years Dumbledore's little weapon will not be polished properly."

They sat in silence as Snape ruminated. While what she said was practically common sense Dumbledore was the only man in the world that Snape trusted. As far as he knew the man had never been wrong and would never purposefully malign anyone. If he said that Harry would be their savior than he _would _be their savior: end of discussion. No questions asked.

"Foolish girl! How dare you, an insolent little wretch, insult Albus Dumbledore! How dare you scheme against such a man whilst you keep yourself imprisoned in my home out of sheer cowardice! All that he does he does so Mudbloods like you and halfbreeds like me aren't massacred in the streets by a raving lunatic and his merry band of black-clad inbred buffoons; he did not choose for Potter to live such a miserable life! He did not create the…" Suddenly his eyes grew wide and he trailed off. _Wait…what prophecy? _

They sat in silence for several long minutes. Hermione was smirking as Snape fought internally to make sense of Hermione's words. Perhaps he had been told something and had forgotten it, however he soon realized that such thinking was folly. His blood boiled at knowing that Hermione was privy to his inner struggle._ It cannot be! _He repeated over and over again.

"Oh, you mean that the headmaster never mentioned it to you?" She finally said. Her tone held an uncanny likeness to Snape's usual drawl only it was derived of condescension and not bitter loathing. Snape only stared at the younger witch blankly as she smirked expectantly and continued. "My, isn't this an interesting development?" She added dryly and Snape was about to reply when suddenly a harrowing pain burned his forearm. He barely flinched (if anything he felt annoyance) at the familiar presence. He looked up to see Hermione nearly doubled over in agony and smirked.

"You are called." Hermione hissed quietly through clenched teeth and Snape glared at her before disappearing with a soft pop.

Hermione sighed and went back to reading her book entitled "The Aftermost Abode of the Arcane: Fathoming the Department of Mysteries" by Aloysius Hendry.

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Author's Note: Apparently not many of you care about the spiritual level of your soul as no one bothered to up their karma by reviewing. I will now show you the mathematic equation of this incedibly intricate process….

(Your soul, which is happy because it gets to move onto a higher level of existence)

U+review=^_^ = (your karma++++++)= ^_^

So, in short, 2+2=7.


	42. Threat

Severus inwardly sighed angrily. In the midst of the meeting with Voldemort Hermione had taken it upon herself to use their connection to inform him that there was an order meeting. When asked how exactly she had become aware of this his anger doubled. She had been meddling in Albus' thoughts.

His anger turned biting curiosity as she informed him that Voldemort's thoughts were equally preoccupied with said prophecy.

_Do not tell me that you have been mucking around in the Old Serpent's thoughts!?_ He nearly gasped aloud but after years of carefully schooling his features his shock was imperceptible. He stood seemingly enrapt at Voldemort's latest sermon.

_No, but Harry has seen things in nightmares. He doesn't know it, but he has seen the door the Department of Mysteries numerous times. _

_And that has what exactly to do with your so called Prophecy? _

_The Department of Mysteries is where every prophecy that has ever been made is kept, Severus. _

_And you know this how? _

_One, I am a Legillimens and Occlumens, courtesy of you. I have been keeping a close watch on Harry as he is secretive by nature. Two, do you think I have been holed up in various libraries of your manor reading Witch Weekly? _

The Death Eater Meeting was then called to an end and Snape apparated to the wards outside of his home. He slipped through them when he suddenly heard Hermione's voice reverberating within his skull.

_Dumbledore has sent for you. You must leave now. I will stay out of your head until you return. He is panicking._

Upon silently asking for Hermione to elaborate Snape found him shut out of her mind. He growled before walking back through the wards and apparating outside of Hogwarts. From there he walked through the deserted grounds and corridors to the statue before the headmaster's office. He whispered the password and rode the rising winding stair to the headmaster's office. He closed off his mind, calmed his heart, and resumed his usual stoic mask before perfunctorily knocking on the door.

"Enter." He did to find a rather bothered looking Dumbledore pacing around the circular room.

"Good evening Albus." Snape said quietly as he sat down in one of the chairs before his desk. As Dumbledore did not offer him tea or his favorite muggle candy of the week he knew that something must have obviously been bothering the elderly wizard. He actually became worried himself upon realizing that the usual twinkle in Dumbledore's blue eyes was strangely absent.

"I am going to be blunt, Severus." Albus said as he continued to pace. He suddenly stopped and looked at the potions master.

"There is a wizard alive not only powerful enough to steal away my thoughts and roam freely throughout my mind. He is of such skill that his presence is nearly undetectable and his identity eludes me again and again." The old man said, looking truly haunted.

_Bested by a little Gryffindor after all this time. The irony is so succinct that it escapes description. Oh yes, __**he **__is of such skill. _

"Voldemort is not a powerful enough Legillimens in his current state and there are none others in his service with this skill, save you Severus; and even you have not attained such mastery as to make your presence untraceable."

"This is very disconcerting." Severus said aloud in his usual emotionless drawl and Dumbledore thought nothing of it.

"For the first time on over a century I have been outwitted! I was the most powerful wizard of the age! Now there is one better who remains hidden by such strength of magic that I cannot begin to fathom it and continuously rapes my mind! Only an enemy would do such a thing!"

_Indeed._

"I am inclined to think that you have betrayed me." He said darkly. "Voldemort obviously holds some unknown power."

"Come now, Albus. You and I both know that Riddle can barely keep his wits about him long enough to keep his throng of half-mad inbred imbeciles from killing one another in blind idiocy, let alone launch a mental attack on one such as you." Snape replied without missing a beat.

Dumbledore sat in silent contemplation for a long while before finally looking up. "Oh, and what have you to report?" He gazed at Severus suspiciously and the man sighed.

"He spoke of a prophecy. He wants to retrieve it. He has not said where it is, of what or whom it is about, or how exactly how we are to go about retrieving it. But if I could hazard a guess I would say that it's about the Potter brat defeating him and it is kept within the Department of Mysteries." He felt surprise flare deep within his façade as utter fear encompassed the older man for less than a quarter of a second. It was barely even enough to be perceptible, to the average witch or wizard. Snape felt the irrepressible need to run home and speak with Hermione. "Do you know anything of such a prophecy?" Snape finished and Dumbledore only shook his head.

"Are you certain?"

"If anything I would expect it was a ploy to control his followers."

"That seems quite unlikely. The few Voldemort trusts he trusts implicitly."

"You think such a man capable of trust?"

"If nothing else he is a man who is not in need of ploys to control his followers. To take the mark is to sell your soul and relinquish your free will. He is a man overtaken by selfish ambition. He covets it and it will be handed to him if we do not get it first! There is proof-"

"You would believe him over me?"

Snape recoiled.

"If this is truly where your loyalties lay then you would best serve our cause rotting in Azkaban with Umbridge." Dumbledore said dangerously only to return to his usual more collected self after several moments of silence. "Anything else of note?" The elderly wizard asked thinly.

"He has started siphoning the power out of the younger and more useless death eaters via the dark mark. It will not be long before the final battle is waged." _However he will not wage it without first retrieving the prophecy. _

"Thank you Severus, you may go." Dumbledore distractedly dismissed him and Snape bid him goodnight before leaving the office and exiting Hogwarts the same way he had arrived.

Dumbledore groaned and put his head in his hands. One question plagued his mind.

How to get the members of the order to keep something safe without letting them know the very nature of what they protected or even that they were protecting anything at all?

* * *

Review Replies/Author's Note

animesnape21: Three cheers for bad math skills! And I don't know when or if there will be any real snape/hermy smut in here. If depends on how the plot evolves.

KatAndMonkey: It's cool. Glad you like Hermoine. I'm tired of how she's always portrayed and wanted to try something a bit different.

AN: anyone read any good fics lately? Since I just got a term paper I'm going to need to procrastinate and I've run out of good fics to read. If you could throw me a bone, I'd be eternally greaful.


	43. To Stop a Storm

Dark morning seemed to cling to Hogwarts castle like a dark cloak as a sudden storm came and seemed hell bent on pummeling it into rubble. Lightening struck at the grounds and thunder rumbled ominously about them as Harry and Sirius lay in the Room of requirement clinging to one another. While Harry jumped with nearly every other particularly loud crash, Sirius grimaced as the weather reminded him of the constant grey tempest which he had watched circle Azkaban like a hoard of menacing beasts for over a decade.

Harry's body lurched with a new burst of thunder and Sirius held onto him even more tightly. Harry only looked up at him, every ounce a scared boy. Suddenly his eyes widened slightly. He had just had an idea.

"Wait, are we wizards or not?" Harry said and pulled out his wand. "Substistos!" He called and suddenly all noise stopped. The enchanted sky of the room of requirement cleared to reveal a beautiful starry night. Sirius looked at him questioningly.

"Did you just _stop _a storm?" He asked and Harry smiled, already starting to relax with the spring storm seemingly far off.

"No, that's impossible." He said. "I only kind of, put up a shield to make it unnoticeable around us." He said and Sirius sighed before ending their embrace and sitting up in the over stuffed divan.

"Something bad is about to happen." Sirius said darkly and Harry sat as well.

"What do you mean?"

"I flooed into Dumbledore's office earlier, before making my way here. Snivellus was there and they were arguing. He said something about a prophecy about you and Dumbledore kept telling him that there wasn't one and that Voldemort was losing it. Snivellus said that he had proof and Dumbledore said that if he would believe Voldemort over him then he could go to rot in Azkaban with Umbridge tomorrow because he would hand him over."

"No!" Harry exclaimed and Sirius nodded emphatically.

"Yeah, the git said that he even knew where the prophecy's kept, in the Department of Mysteries at the ministry. Voldemort's after it."

"Merlin!" Harry gasped. "Why would Dumbledore not believe him? He would never send Snape off to Azkaban, would he? I wonder what the prophecy says. Why would Voldemort-"

"I say we go after it." Sirius said, a mischievous glint in his eyes. Harry gasped.

"What?"

"It's about you. You have a right to know." Sirius said as if it were perfect common sense.

"Are you the densest human being alive? You are basically saying that an escaped convict, one of the most wanted men in the wizarding world, and the self-proclaimed leader of Dumbledore's Army should break into the Ministry of Magic (which is all but in the hands of Voldemort), steal an unknown prophecy from an unknown place when we can't even say what it looks like, and then walk out with it!"

"Yeah! It'll be great, like I'm sixteen again." Sirius said, his happy thoughts unperturbed by the very distraught Harry sitting beside him.

"When you were sixteen you were breaking into the Hogwarts kitchen to steal chocolate cake after hours, not into the Ministry of Magic! You'll get caught and they'll lock you up again." He said sadly and Sirius was about to argue but sobered upon seeing how crestfallen Harry looked. "Promise me that you won't go." He whispered woefully.

"Harry, I was just talking. I don't even know what it looks like or where they keep-"

"Sirius, promise me." Harry interrupted coldly and saw the panic in the older man's grey eyes as he felt his stomach clench

"I mean, it's not as if I'd actually ever consider-"

"Promise me!" This time it was an order. There was something akin to possessive rage in Harry's eyes as he hissed the command again. He was gripping Sirius hands so tightly that the man felt as if his bones might break. Sirius nearly shuddered. He had never seen his younger lover look so haunted.

"I…I promise." He choked out and Harry did not look convinced.

"You don't understand. My parents died because of me, Cedric died because of me, Hermione is…" He felt the words forming on the tips of his teeth and tongue but he could not bring himself to say it as he was completely confused regarding Hermione, all though in his gut he knew that she lived. He also knew that Umbridge would be going to Azkaban tomorrow for a murder which she did not commit. The anger in his eyes faded and he once again looked vulnerable and small "And even more people will die because of me. Please, not you too."

Sirius gently caressed Harry's cheek with one of thumbs. He felt horrible for even considering getting the prophecy as tears he knew would not fall gathered in the corners of Harry's eyes.

"I promise you, Harry, I will not look for it." He said and Harry only looked at him sadly. "Please, please believe-"He began but was cut off as he felt soft lips almost shyly pressing at his own. He pulled away only to see Harry staring up at him, his lips quivering and the need to be comforted burning in the depths of his eyes.

Sirius held Harry, his head resting against his chest. "I'm not going anywhere." He said softly as he left a trail of lustless kisses from the top of Harry's head to his exposed shoulder. "And when this is all over we can go somewhere, someplace where no one knows who we are and just forget all of this, all of the death."

"I'd like that." Harry replied and Sirius gingerly buried his nose in his hair.

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Author's Note: There are about twenty chapters left. Updates will be much faster then they have been as I have almost all of them written already.


	44. Benedictions of Being a Wizard

Snape had _almost_ felt bad for Umbridge. _Almost…_

She had sat in a little chair in the midst of a courtroom in front of nearly a hundred and fifty people, all of who at the moment thought her even lower than Voldemort. Over and over again she proclaimed her innocence, a truth which no one believed. Snape knew that her show earned her no pity and would only land her with up to ten more years in Azkaban then if she would have cooperated and confessed. In days long passed she would have been tortured. It was then that any small speck of sympathy he had felt dissipated and was replaced with morbidly fascinating thoughts of torture; Muggle torture with ropes and irons, wizard torture with any number of spells.

He was in the middle of contemplating a spell that would remove the victim's heart from his chest slowly over the course of an hour and keep him alive, when he noticed the green eyes of the Potter brat wondering idly about the room. His entire body was shaking. Unlike both Ron and all of Hermione's family who glared at Umbridge with unbridled loathing or were teary-eyed, he looked almost guilty. Many of the room's occupants watched Harry.

_Potter knows that she's alive. _He thought as the judge called a brief recess. He was exiting the court room along with the lachrymose and furious throng when suddenly Hermione's voice entered his thoughts.

_Take Harry to the Department of Mysteries to get the prophecy. _

_Have you lost your mind? _

_No. Prophecies can only be retrieved by those whom they are about. When Voldemort figures this out he will either kidnap Harry or spring some sort of trap to lead him there. Dumbledore will only try and retrieve it indirectly and once he does its meaning will be lost as he wants no one else to know of it; neither can have it as both will abuse it. We must have it. This would be the perfect opportunity. _

_So, you want a speculated Death Eater and the self proclaimed leader of Dumbledore's Army to waltz into the Department of Mysteries at midday and ask for the secret prophecy regarding Harry James Potter and the fate of the world? Ministry officials are everywhere! Spies of both Voldemort and the Order are everywhere! Are you daft? _

_No. You see, those with pure intent who only seek their own prophecy __**can **__simply waltz right in and none will be able to stop them as they will be protected by ancient magic which allows every wizard the right to his destiny. Being that the guards have left their duties in order to sneak in and see the trial, I couldn't really think of a better time. _

_And what if we are recognized? _

_One of the benedictions of being a wizard would be the ability to use charms to mask your appearance, Severus…_

_How convenient…but all conveniences aside how in Merlin's name are we supposed to find it? _

_The magic will lead Harry there and then to his prophecy. You just have to follow him. Also, do not close the door once you enter or you will never find your way out. _

_How on earth could you possibly know all this? _

_It turns out that extensive libraries, filled with everything only a powerful pureblooded family such as your mother's would be able to obtain over the centuries, are good for more than collecting dust. _

_Oh. _

Snape let out an annoyed sigh at Hermione's sarcastic drawl. There was always someone pulling his strings. For once in his life, could he not serve a higher master? Could he not be a mere puppet?

_You consider me a higher Master?_ Hermione's unfitting call of girlish surprise pierced his skull. He grimaced as he fought the urge to hit his head against something. Fortunately he almost always wore such a sour expression so no one thought anything of it. At least Voldemort's voiuce wasn't so shrill.

_I'll do as you ask. Now, go away._ He thought bitterly as he conjured himself a cup of water to ease his throat which he had just noticed was horribly dry.

He looked across the hallway to see Weasley's sister holding him as he cried and Harry standing against the wall a few feet away staring at the ground. He had half a mind to find Hermione's parents but decided against it. All of the ridiculous displays of emotion were making him even more irritable than usual.

* * *

Review Reply/Author's Note:

KatAndMonkey: Yup. Updates will be pretty quick for the rest of this. If you love Hermoine now, you'll go mad for her in the sequal. She practically drives Dumbly off of a proverbial cliff. By the end of this (sequal included), at least four of the main characters will die. I'm not telling who, but as it stands right now there are four deaths.


	45. Recess

During a recess in the trial Snape looked up to see Harry whisper something to Ron before fleeing from the room. Snape sighed and suddenly felt eyes on him. She shifted his gaze to find the red headed Arthur Weasley imploring him silently to follow the brat. He knew that he had obviously not been the man's first choice but he had been the only one who had been conscious enough to notice his eyes on him. Snape nodded discretely in return and fled from the room.

Just as Hermione had anticipated, in places where there should have been guards at their posts maintaining the charms which kept the building safe there were only vacant spots and the faint glow of dying magic.

He trailed Potter for nearly twenty minutes until he stopped at a restroom nearly halfway across the building. He followed him inside only to see the seemingly oblivious younger man standing with his head and balled fists pressed up against the cool tile of the restroom.

"What do you want professor?" He ground out before slamming is fists against the tile. He could find no tears within himself, only anger at his own confusion and anger at seeing all of those people crying for someone needlessly. He could have saved them that pain if he could only tell them the truth. "Come to see if you can make me cry like the rest of them?" His fists pounded against the wall again and Snape sighed impatiently.

"Let us not waste time with your juvenile dramatics. I have been sent here with a task to complete. Unfortunately it involves you."

"What?"

"Do you think I am here out of love for your little Gryffindor friend? Dumbledore has given me, or essentially us, a rather important task."

Harry stared at him blankly and Snape continued. He began to wonder if the boy was in possession of a single working brain cell.

"He has told me that you must retrieve some object from the Department of Mysteries. It is vital to the outcome of the war." Snape was almost expecting Harry to ask him what war he was speaking of.

"Why do I have to get it?"

"I do not know."

"What is it?"

"I cannot honestly say."

"Why will it make such a diff-"

"Cease your inane prattle. Do you honestly think that I am high enough on Dumbledore's list to be told anything other than what to do? I haven't known exactly why I have done almost a single thing I have done for him in over a decade."

"Seriously?" Harry looked completely awestruck. "But I thought he would at least tell you. I thought he likes you. He saved you."

Snape felt anger beginning to burn its way through his veins. If only Harry knew. He stifled his rage just before it became almost uncontainable. "So naïve." He eventually said blankly. Harry opened his mouth as if to speak and the older wizard quickly cut him off. "We will disguise ourselves and then we will go." He said and Harry watched in the mirror as his quiddich tanned skin became milky and pale his green eyes darkened to a common brown. His hair grew down to his shoulders in matted yellow rivulets and his entire face became only slightly softer.

He looked beside him to see an oddly handsome boy of his own age glowering into the mirror. His long dark hair was pulled back at the base of his neck. He could see almost the entire room reflected in his deep and seemingly endless eyes. There were no lines of worry and no scars to mar his oddly ethereal complexion. As far as he was concerned Snape might as well have been a different person.

Harry was in the midst of blatantly staring when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of his head. He let out a yelp more out of surprise than anything.

"Control yourself Potter." He enjoyed embarrassing the younger wizard and watching him stumble like an ungainly oaf. His smirk grew even wider as he had succeeded yet again. Harry looked about ready to faint. As far as he was concerned anyone looking at him like that deserved a good smack in the back of the head. "Oh, think of what Sirius would say." He mused and Harry seemed to shrink into himself slightly. Snape sighed. "Come, we must go." He said and dragged Harry away from the mirror and into the corridor.

"Now close your eyes and follow your feet." Snape said and Harry looked at him as if he had just gone mad. "For once just do as you're told." He muttered and Harry sighed before closing his eyes. Suddenly he felt his feet moving. He relinquished control and simply allowed his legs the lead.

Snape reluctantly followed Harry throughout the building for what felt like hours but in reality was less than even half an hour. Questions built in his mind the entire time but he did not want to break Harry's concentration by voicing any of his thoughts aloud. For nearly half an hour Harry blindly led them down winding staircases, regular staircases, and numerous corridors. Suddenly he came to a stop before a big black door.

"Is this-"

"Yes." Snape replied

"But how-"

"It's not important." Snape replied sharply and saw Harry's eyes narrow.

"Do you all really expect me to trust you if you lie to me and hide things from me constantly?" He snapped.

"No, but we expect you to trust that Voldemort can pick through your brain at his discretion, thereby making imparting information to you the equivalent of handing him a detailed list of all our future and past escapades."

Harry folded his arms but remained silent. Snape let out an exasperated sigh before pulling the younger man roughly against him and muttering a hold on as the door swung open. They marched over the threshold.

* * *

Review Reply/Author's Note:

KatAndMonkey: I'm not really sure yet honestly.


	46. Rapture

They stood in a large circular room. Black above, black below, and equally black walls made the room seem almost endless. Identical black handle-less doors sat at intervals stretching the entire length of the wall. Silver candelabras, each bearing long black candles burning with ominous blue flame were mounted on the wall in between the doors. The aura of the blue candles gave the surrounding black the appearance of flowing water. For a second Harry could not fight the sensation that he was drowning. Snape looked around warily, half-expecting to find them both under attack from either ministry officials, spies of Voldemort, Unspeakables, or worse.

When Snape felt Harry attempt to remove himself from his grasp he tightened it. He could feel the question on the younger man's lips before he had spoken it. "If we shut the door we'll never find our way out." He said, apparently answering Harry's question as the boy was quiet. Snape finally let him go as nothing had happened even after several minutes and he was convinced that nothing magical or otherwise was going to jump out at them or attempt to harm them.

"Which door do we take?" He finally asked and Snape thought back on all that Hermione had told him.

"You will lead us to it." The older wizard said and Harry closed his eyes, waiting for the feeling which had led them both to the Department of Mysteries to overcome him again. Soon it had and he was lost to it as his feet moved toward the door directly in front of him. Snape followed silently behind. The door swung open easily to reveal an endless room pervaded with ethereal sparkling light and myriad clocks maddeningly ticking and tocking at different intervals. A sea of ancient desks was spread before them, all the light dancing about them came from a jar of pure swirling white light on the very last desk.

Snape almost lost Harry as he stood awestruck at the sight while the younger man continued toward it as if in a trance. Neither noticed that their glamours fell as they stepped into the room and became encircled in white light. Harry was once again an awkward youth and Snape a man who had wore a lifetime of suffering in the premature lines and wrinkles etched in his sallow skin. In that room for the first time in his memory The Potions Master and overworked overstressed teacher caught in a deadly game of strategy between three masters felt honestly at peace. The algid void and ever present threat that he had felt ever since his miserable childhood was filled. He was warm and safe and significant. The man of stone smiled feeling no true reason to hide. There was no longer any reason to live imprisoned by fear, abject loathing, and constant regret.

It was as he bathed in this temporary all-consuming rapture that Harry Potter left him behind.

As Snape stood encircled in pure light and all the wonderful things of life which fate had denied him Harry continued on to the black door semi-hidden behind the ornate crystalline jar. It swung open as he approached to reveal cold darkness beyond.

* * *

Author's Note/Review Replies

animesnape21: I can't make any promises. When I originally posted this I took a vote because I had no idea where to go with it and based on those votes I came up with an amazingly twisted plot that I am pretty sure no one has ever done before. I am sure that most people will be satisfied with the ending even if a character that they particularly liked doesn't make it.

Author's Note: Gnargen-faffel.........


	47. The Hall of Prophecies

Dolores Umbridge was sentenced to life in Azkaban, the recess long past over as Harry entered the Hall of Prophecies. Unbeknownst to him Arthur Weasley had left at the end of the trial to find where he and Snape had gotten off too, as they had been missing for quite a while. Thankfully the last place he had thought to look was the Department of Mysteries.

In his barely cognizant daze he perceived but did not process the eerie chill in the air or the few candles which cast ominous flickering light on a seemingly endless room. Rows and rows of shells stuffed full of dusty opaque orbs stretched from the floor to the ceiling. He moved silently by shelf after shelf, not conscious of how the cold was penetrating him to such an extent that his joints creaked like poorly oiled hinges. His footsteps were nearly silent as he went, moving faster and faster toward his destination.

After passing a countless number of shelves he finally turned and walked in between two of them. He walked along the small aisle made of shelves for a few long minutes before stopping and reaching out to a shelf almost out of his reach. His fingers closed around one of the opaque orbs and it became blaringly white within. Harry cried out as the powerful surge of light temporarily blinded him and awoke him from his trance. He nearly fell against the shelf behind him and all of the orbs on it rattled precariously.

"What-what-where?" Harry mumbled incoherently as he barely had any memory of what he had done for the past several hours. He gasped as it came back to him. The thing in his hand was some kind of war weapon which only he could retrieve. Snape had gone with him, but whatever had happened to him?

"Professor!?" Harry cried as he ran along the aisles of shelves in the direction which he had come. "Professor!?" He called again to no avail. After nearly half an hour the door which he had both entered the Hall of Prophecies through and left Severus behind came into view. Adrenaline rushed through his veins as he ran quickly through the bitter chill of the hall. Upon finally reaching the door he stopped dead, staring blatantly at the spectacle before him from the threshold.

Snape was floating in the air, his bat-like robes billowing about him. He had the most ridiculous grin on his face and looked honestly at peace. It was something Harry almost could not believe and he knew that no one else ever would. His normally dispassionate eyes were filled with peace and joy. Light simply exuded from him as he stood humming allowing respite to wash over him. He suddenly turned to look directly at Harry, his hair even seeming less greasy. For the first time in years he actually looked to be the young man he truly was.

"So much like your mother." He said with a genuine smile on his face. His eyes sparkled. Harry only looked at him openmouthed as if his jaw had taken the liberty of unhinging itself. "In your eyes, in your smile. There is none of his arrogance in you is there, Harry?" He asked, looking deeply into his eyes and after several long minutes of his not unkind scrutiny Harry could only manage a small "It's time to leave Professor." For a minute Snape looked horrified.

"Please…" The older man begged. "I am at peace here. This is the only time as long as I live that I will not be…void…Please!" He looked near tears.

"Professor, you have a job to do, people to save-"

"To them I am little but a pawn caught between three masters. I am little but a wretched thing to be ignored on the best of days…please." He begged and Harry sighed miserably before taking him by the hand and leading him out. Snape continued to beg but did not fight him, He continued his pathetic mewling until they had left the room and stood back in the main chamber of the Department of Mysteries. He sobered almost immediately, skillfully keeping his tears hidden far behind his eyes as the warmth which had pervaded him dissipated leaving him again an empty shell. The only remnants of emotions were the tears which stained his cheeks. Suddenly thoughts that were not his own flooded his mind.

_Take the prophecy, obliviate him, and alter his memories. Make him believe whatever you like. _

In no position to even argue against Hermione's voice Severus promptly grabbed the orb from Harry, obliviated him, altered his memories to make him think that he had only made feeble attempts at comforting him while he cried, stunned him and then swiftly woke him up right outside the Department of Mysteries.

"Thank you professor." Harry said awkwardly as false images of Snape halfheartedly comforting him as he sobbed assaulted him. Snape nodded offhandedly.

"Come along Potter." Snape replied and helped him to his feet before leading him back toward the others.

* * *

Author's Note/Review Reply:

KatAndMonkey: I think he deserves it. And I meant that I'm not sure of either. While I do have something planned, I'm at the mercy of my muse.

AN: Happy thanksgiving to all 538 of my readers in the US!


	48. Emphasis On Eventually

"This is our last Wednesday together." Sirius said sadly. The lovers lay spooning on the sofa. As Sirius played with the ends of Harry's long dark hair with one hand Harry held tightly onto the other.

"I know." Harry replied. "I can't believe it's the end of May. Then we won't see each other until July."

Sirius sighed sadly and brushed his lips against the pale column bared before him. "It will be one day. You'll see. Everything rights itself eventually." It was obvious that at the moment the man did not believe a word of what he had said.

"Emphasis on eventually?" Harry asked in an attempt to lighten the mood and Sirius let out a snort and buried his nose in Harry's hair.

--

Hermione smiled as she removed herself from Harry's mind. She knew that if she were to view the scene for any longer she would not become a voyeur (as neither of them were quite in the mood mere hours after Umbridge's trial). She turned back to the book on her lap when suddenly she felt a familiar tingle in her chest. Snape was returning. She smirked to herself and immediately attempted to immerse herself in her book and forget the painful anticipation which had plagued her all day. Snape was returning with the prophecy.

She pretended to be engrossed in whatever she was reading as he stalked into the sitting room. Neither spoke, squirming unpleasantly and happily watching the other squirm, as they waited for the other to begin.

Hermione let out a sigh of defeat after nearly ten minutes. Snape smirked.

"Impatient are we?" He drawled and Hermione glowered at him. His smirk widened.

"Do the wizarding world a favor and stifle yourself." Hermione said and began to reach toward the cloak pocket she knew the prophecy to be in with questing fingers. He coolly grabbed her hand, halting it. Hermione half-heartedly attempted to pull her hand free but the elder man held fast. She arched an eyebrow.

"We do this together." He spoke softly and turned, guiding her along behind him as he strode across the first level of his manor to a large wooden door. It swung open as they passed to reveal a steep flight of stairs. Still hand in hand Hermione was led into the dark of Snape's personal potions lab. He locked the door behind them.

Enchanted candles lit as they passed to illuminate a large room with a high ceiling. Several tables sat in the middle and countless cabinets lined the walls from the floor to the ceiling. An attractive combination of black and silver made for an almost ominous aura. The place was both immaculate and eerie, just like its owner. Hermione let out a gasp, her jaw agog, and Snape smirked.

"Charming." He drawled and began to remove his cloak which held the prophecy inside. Within seconds a pile of black fabric rested on the countertop. A heavy silence fell again, all sarcasm disappearing from the situation as they stared at the cloaked prophecy.

Unable to wait any longer, Snape eventually leaned forward and pulled the cloak away, revealing an orb of swirling light. Its glow intensified as they took a step forward simultaneously. Snape looked at Hermione and she read the question in his eyes.

"Take out your wand and place it on the prophecy on my count." She said as she took her own wand from the holder on her arm and Snape did the same.

"One…" Hermione said and the both held their wands aloft.

"Two…"

The pointed edges hovered above the prophecy's unearthly glow.

"Three-"

_A boy born of fire lies in separate lives _

_For the unseen mark he bares within he must sacrifice _

_Two graves and a shattered soul lest the enemy may rise _

_For the twice defeated there shall never be a thrice _

_Darkness given free reign again to him who belies _

_The epitaph ensconced within him is their foulest vice _

_As there is no way to convalesce what has been destined awry _

_Only in his untimely wake can we forestall our demise _

_A lesser entity of empty vengeance must in separate sepulchers lay_

Snape and Hermione looked at one another wide eyed. For the first time the seemingly imperturbable potions master seemed ready to faint. Hermione stood slack jawed and even paler than the sallow-skinned Snape. He fled the room leaving a shell-shocked Hermione to fall to the floor on her hands and knees. Tears poured down her face as she wretched pitifully onto the floor.

Snape growled, schooling his features madly as he scaled the stairs four at a time in order to reach the first level of his house. He had put in place special wards to warn him when an unknown presence was on the grounds and he had been warned. Using Occlumency he discerned this presence to be Lucius Malfoy and groaned as he came to the door. He opened it to reveal a very smug looking Malfoy, leaning in a most urbane fashion against his cane as he glanced up at Snape condescendingly through a veil of silvery-blonde hair.

"Severus." He smiled and invited himself inside.

"Malfoy." Snape replied dryly, although his heart beat so wildly he felt as if it would break free of his chest.

"Come, Severus, don't be so unsociable." Lucius replied with a grin. This conversation was somewhat of a game they had been playing for years.

"Come, Malfoy, don't be so…epicurean." Snape replied as dispassionately as he usually did even though he was silently screaming at the overly-aristocratic ponce to get the fuck out of his house.

"Epicurean? Does your use of language become even more outdated every time I have the misfortune of finding myself in your presence?"

"Possibly, however it is equally likely that your intellect is dwindling faster than your youth." _Get the fuck out of my house. Get the fuck out of my house. Get the fuck out of my-_

"Enough." Lucius decided as he smirked again. Snape continued to inwardly repeat his mantra as he raised an eyebrow questioningly. "In three days time Potter will be ours." He said and it took all of Snape's control to remain nonchalant.

"I just thought that you should know." The blonde replied flippantly and turned only to walk briskly out of Snape's ancestral home as if he owned it.

"Overtly feminine mentally defective inbred lummox." He muttered as he rushed back down to his potion's lab to see to a completely shaken Hermione. He had heard a similar speech from Lucius four times before, and each time Voldemort's lackeys had returned empty handed.

He returned to his potions lab and opened the door only to find Hermione standing before the prophetic orb. Words escaped it in an ominous flighty voice, winding their way around him as he stood in the doorway, watching Hermione regard the mysterious object with rapt attention for several minutes before he apparated from his home to Hogwarts to tell Dumbledore what Lucius had told him.

…_A lesser entity of empty vengeance must in separate sepulchers lay… _

* * *

KatAndMonkey: Snape cannot fly. It was the magic of the room. I kind of have this pet peeve with characters that can conveniently fly. You'll see what they are planning and she hasn't really intervened because they needed the opportune moment.

Benners: Thanks! Glad you like it.

AN: In honor of thanksgiving (which only makes me depressed as it's a total lie invented by white old rich men to make themselves feel better about stealing America from the native americans) here is another chapter. Enjoy it. It's delicious.


	49. When Mercury is in the Ninth House

Sirius was lying on the floor. His dark hair was sweat drenched and matted against his face. He was obviously pinned by a cruel spell against a cold black floor. The buttons which held his shirt and coat together had popped exposing a taut chest decorated with both tattoos and painful bruises.

"Never!" He cried, his voice full of defiance and unadulterated hatred. His grey eyes flashed one last time before a low unrecognizable spell was called and his arm began to corrode layer by layer. Blood flowed gruesomely over the floor as his skin bubbled and seethed, leaving pink muscle exposed. Sirius howled in agony. "Harry!" He cried, there was cruel laughter about him. "Harry!" He called again as if his life depended on it.

"Sirius!" Harry awoke, jolted from his bed and immediately began to dress. While Seamus and Neville had put silencing charms around their beds so they were not awaken by Harry's occasional nightly fit Ron had not and was immediately by his side.

"Harry, what's going on!?" He asked as he stood by the bed. Harry stopped attempting to pull a shirt on over his legs. There were tears in his eyes.

"The death eaters have Sirius!" He said weakly and continued dressing as the occasional tear streamed down his face.

"Where?" Ron asked as he started to get dressed as well.

"The Department of Mysteries. I could tell by the floor."

"What would Sirius, be doing there?" Ron asked as he haphazardly pulled on an old red jumper.

Harry was about to answer when suddenly a small and incredibly timid voice sounded through the dorm. "How do you know that it isn't just a trap set up by You-Know-Who?"

The pair looked to see a fully dressed Neville standing beside his bed. His shoes were on the wrong feet and his jumper was on backwards. His hair was a mess.

"I've been taking Occlumency for almost the entire year. And I've been seeing bits of meetings ever since His last attack." Harry said.

"But what would Sirius be doing there?" Ron asked as he pulled on his shoes.

"Who's Sirius? What's Occlumency?" Neville echoed.

"No time to explain now. I don't want to you guys to come and get yourselves into danger-"

"Bloody fucking hell I'm not going." Ron said and Neville nodded. The teenagers then left the dorm only to find Ginny, Luna, and Oleander sitting in the common room. Both Oleander and Ginny looked annoyed whilst Luna looked at them knowingly.

"What are you guys doing here?" Harry asked breathily.

"Mercury is in the ninth house." Luna replied.

"Anyone we know of in mortal danger?" Ginny asked with an irritated sigh and Harry became rigid and paled to a color beyond white before sprinting across the common room. Luna followed behind.

"Maybe Luna's not a complete nutter…" Ginny muttered to Oleander's retreating back and was the last to leave the common room.

"Is the person…on the school grounds?" Luna asked breathlessly as she caught up with Harry at the forefront of the group. They snuck through the bottom floor of the castle nearly ten minutes later and still Harry had not answered.

"No." He finally whispered.

"Then we can take the thestrals. I know where they're kept." Luna said and fell back a bit, Harry too focused on the task ahead to question her.

* * *

KatAndMonkey: FEAR MY MAD POETRY SKIZZELS!!!!!!! You'll see. Lucius is just about to make his grand entrance..........

AN: Does anyone know the name of the new Alan Rickman movie?


	50. Of Lures and Lambs

"So, where does this leave us Granger?" Snape asked as they sat in his private study drinking fire whiskey three days later. The prophecy had been placed beneath impenetrable charms and hidden away after they had listened to it the fiftieth time, leaving the pair time to contemplate their findings in peace.

"I…don't know." She replied and miserably downed a shot.

"Well, I would say that it is fairly obvious that neither Albus nor Voldemort can know of this."

"Do you really think so Severus?" Hermione snapped as she magicked her shot glass full.

"I would also say that it would not be entirely wrong to assume that we have been mislead to believe that Harry is a weapon when in fact he is really-"

"A sacrificial lamb." Hermione interrupted and her face became hard and cold as tears trickled down her cheeks. She gulped down the fire whiskey in her shot glass, ignoring the burn as more tears escaped her almost black eyes.

"All this, just so they can kill him!" She exclaimed, savagely rubbing her tears away and downing several more shots in rapid succession.

"Granger, we don't know if that is even what the prophecy-" Snape began semi-worriedly.

"No! And then goddamn Dumbledore hiding this from everyone! He's known all along…" she continued her angry and then melancholy ramblings as she imbibed more and more drink. Snape watched haplessly as she wept bitter tears. Tears dripped down her chin and mingled with the amber liquid she was too intoxicated to swallow.

Mere minutes before he knew she would succumb to the poison in her system and need to be carried to bed the ward he had placed warning him of fire calls, did just that. He groaned as he left her and placed a silencing charm around the room she would spend the night in. He walked from his study to the living room where the head of a grave-looking Lupin was suspended, wreathed in flame.

"Hogwarts! Now!" The werewolf spoke in a frightened, tired voice before disappearing and Snape flooed to the headmaster's office.

Upon arriving he found Lupin standing in the headmaster's office by the desk. "We have to get to headquarters now!" He cried and dashed from the room. Snape, knowing that it would not do to be seen in the company of the werewolf, waited nearly fifteen minutes. He rushed throughout the castle and the grounds only to stop where the wards of Hogwarts ended. He then apparated to the front of Grimmauld place and stepped inside. He walked to the kitchen to find Dumbledore sitting at the head of the table surrounded by somber order members. A grief-stricken Sirius Black sat beside them worrying at the ring on his finger.

"Harry, along with five other students, has disappeared." Albus said and Sirius glared at Snape.

"Where is he Snape?!" Sirius cried accusingly and Snape did not respond. He sat pensively gazing through his pallid clasped hands.

"We can't just sit here and hope everything rights itself! Snape warned us that they would try something tonight! Why was Harry not locked up somewhere where he couldn't go wandering off! I thought Hogwarts was impenetrable!" Sirius cried, this time his ire directed at Albus. Snape had, in his usual fashion, pieced everything together eons before everyone else. He was certain that Albus knew as well, but was not voicing such knowledge as in the process he would divulge his secrets regarding the prophecy. Snape watched them bicker amongst themselves for several long minutes as Dumbledore sat silent.

"Albus, you were right." He said aloud eventually and the room fell silent. Dumbledore begged him to continue with his eyes. "But so was I. The prophecy is not another deception which Voldemort uses to manipulate his followers, but a lure to manipulate Potter."

"Prophecy!?" The members of the order gasped in chorus, looking between Dumbledore and Snape. A myriad questions filled the room with asphyxiating noise, only to be abruptly stopped again as Sirius stood and screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Stop fucking wasting time! Voldemort could have Harry by the throat, right now, as we all sit here like a bunch of lousy…lousy…" He trailed off as he walked toward the door, shaking with emotion before suddenly looking back to Albus.

"Where would Harry go to find this prophecy?" Tonks asked nervously.

"The Hall of Prophecies." Albus replied and the order members rose.

* * *

KatAndMonkey: I'm on the fence with Sirius at the moment. And if it weren't for Oedipus, Lucius Malfoy would be the original BAMF.


	51. Because I'm Mean

"Don't you find it odd that no one has tried to stop us yet?" Ginny muttered to Oleander after nearly a quarter of an hour of blindly following Harry through the halls of the Ministry of Magic.

"Well it is…pretty…la-" Ron began to reply through heavy breaths only to be cut off as he ran straight into Harry who had stopped without warning. Luna tripped over him, landing on the floor, and Oleander tripped over her. Ginny barely managed to stop in time and Harry was barely standing.

A rather archaic looking hall stretched before him.

"This place looks…familiar." He muttered airily and almost choked as a brief flash of a jubilant Snape basking in an auric glow assaulted him. He doubled over, feeling for all the world as if the wind had been knocked out of him.

"Harry," Luna's voice and concerned eyes broke his daze. "Are you all right?"

"Fine." He replied with a wince and continued to walk down the hall. The other's followed behind him.

Ginny began to mutter something to Oleander and was abruptly silenced when Harry spun on his heal and glared heatedly at her.

"Quiet!" He hissed. "I might lose it!" All of those who followed him wanted to know exactly what he might lose but thought better of it as he turned and sped off down the hall. Soon they came to a tall black door. As Harry reached out to touch it a vision of a handsome young Snape looming above him and another of a hand clasping about a swirling orb overtook him in rapid succession.

"Harry?" Ron queried weakly after several long minutes of watching his friend stare blankly at the open door before the darkness beyond.

"Have you been here before?" Luna looked at him searchingly and Harry shook his head as the words "Come along Potter." drifted across his consciousness.

He only shook his head, choosing to think about the fact that he was hearing Snape's voice in his head and what exactly that might mean at more convenient time, as he pressed onward into the dark. The other's followed.

Black above. Black below. And seemingly endless black wall bathed in the eerie light of candelabras wreathed in blue flame; A void containing nothing but incandescence and a series of identical handle-less doors.

_If we shut the door we'll never find our way out_.

Just as the chilling voice left him Ron took it upon himself to shut the door. They clung together, Ginny falling blindly onto the floor as the room began to spin about them. Luna screamed. Suddenly the room came to a creeching hault only for them to find that they were standing in the center of the room with absolutely no idea which door to take.

"We just try them at random I guess. We can mark them." Oleander said as he came forward and chose one door to mark with a big red X. They pushed it open only to reveal….

The secret of life?

The muffin man?

Dakota Fanning?

Find out on next weeks episode of ARTF!!!!!!!

(Or tomorrow's…)

KatAndMonkey: You'll just have to wait and see. Assume nothing!


	52. Like Death

A large square room with austere stone tiers led down to a stone pit. In this pit stood what appeared to be an ancient dais and atop this dais there was erected a stone arch which seemed as if it would crumble upon its altar at any minute. A ghost of a curtain fluttered from the top lightly in an illusory breeze. It fell and rose without pattern as a cold that could not be physically felt shook them.

"Harry…" Ginny muttered fearfully as he took a step forward. He heard whispering behind the veil. He felt drawn to it. Luna stood beside him, wide eyed and slack jawed as they hesitantly took slow steps toward the veil.

"What is this place?" Ron whispered and Neville only shrugged.

"It feels like death." Ginny muttered and took several steps closer to Oleander, backing away from the veil.

"I think it is," Luna whispered. "I can hear my mother whispering to me from behind the curtain." She suddenly stopped but Harry continued on, drawing ever closer.

"Your mother?" Ron asked.

"She's been dead for years." Luna said and her eyes grew wide. "I…this could be the archway between our world and…death."

"Harry!" Ginny cried and Ron ran forward, pulling him back.

"Think of Sirius. He's obviously not here." Ron said and Harry did not fight him.

"You're right." Harry muttered before running out of the room as fast as he could manage. The others were only too happy to follow.

Once out they closed the door marked with a red X only to have the walls start to spin in a blur of black and red. They clung to each other as it spun only to stop abruptly. Harry stumbled through another door and landed gracelessly with a loud thunk against an old wooden desk.

His comrades entered carefully to find an endless room pervaded with ethereal sparkling light and myriad clocks maddeningly ticking and tocking at different intervals. A sea of ancient desks was spread before them, all the light dancing about them came from a jar of pure swirling white light on the very last desk.

"There's an open door in the back." Harry said and stopped upon hearing a gasp behind him. He turned around to find his companions slack jawed and glowing with ethereal light.

"Harry, you're glowing!" Ginny gasped as Ron stared at his own hand which shimmered with divine light. Their awe was broken when they suddenly heard a loud giggle from Luna who was drifting toward the ceiling wrapped in light. Oleander followed shortly. Ron and Ginny followed behind only to be lifted away, lost in euphoria. Neville surprisingly fought it the longest before drifting away only to laugh and smile serenely.

Harry soon felt a sensation he was sure was akin to what had taken over his friends. His mind begged for the sweet release he could see on their faces but fought it only to shove on and leave them behind. He crawled over the desks toward the open door, the warmth leaving him and frigid cold snaking itself about his bones as he continued on.

Finally he stood in the threshold looking into the darkness beyond. A high ceiling coated with dust and shelves lined with milky orbs stood as far as he could see. As he stepped into the room the door swung shut and magic crackled in the air as it was sealed only to open under the master's command.

Dark shapes adorned in chilling, cadaverous masks glided forward through the dim like grotesque eidolons. Harry began to shoot disarming spells at them as they came only to have his weak spells bounce off of their imperceptible shields in a play of brilliant color. Flashes reflected in his wide eyes and off of their white masks. They drew closer, surrounding him gracefully in a circle with a space wide enough for three men to stand abreast. A hooded figure, taller than the others materialized from the dark and took his place there. Pallid almost green hands with unnaturally long fingers stood amidst them, clasped. His head rose.

"Harry…" A calm voice called from behind the hood, penetrating the very air and making if fall deathly and heavy about them.

"Where's Sirius!?" Harry cried.

"All in good time Harry." Voldemort replied in his calm way.

"I want to see Sirius!" Harry cried. "What've you done to him!?"

"Your lover lives still," Tom replied offhandedly. "All though, I most regrettably must inform you that Severus tortured him against orders." Harry gasped. "Come forward Severus. Remove your mask." The Dark Lord ordered and one of the uniformed in the circle removed his mask and the sallow cruel face of Snape was revealed to bear an uncharacteristically obvious smirk.

"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort hissed as he pointed his wand at a petrified Snape who crumbled to the ground almost instantly. Harry let out a gasp.

"But…but…" He stuttered, nearly as pale as the man at the opposite end of the smaller circle.

"I have not brought you here to harm you in any way, despite what Dumbledore might have led you to believe. I only ask for parley."

"Parley?" Harry asked in a small voice after a long while of staring blankly at the corpse of Severus Snape which he knew lay beneath a pile of black robes.

"Yes, a negotiation of sorts." Voldemort drawled and Harry blinked blankly.

"But…but, why would you want to negotiate with _me_?" The teenager asked and Voldemort lowered his hood. His grey skin in itself was both luminescent and frightening. He looked more snake than man and more corpse than snake. A benign smile tugged at his lipless mouth.

"Should men not control their own destinies?" He asked and Harry only blinked.

* * *

KatAndMonkey: Sorry, but I have absoloutely no idea what you mean by "brain". Maybe I have forgotten that part in the book?

Random Thank You Time!

To my alerters: Alicia Spinet, AriannaMorgana, Azil, Beladera, Brea45, Crogi-Girl, Darling-Angel-Puff, Draky, HELLSFLAME666, Hatechild, HeatherLB, Invisible Nick, Jemma82, King666, KnowingDivine, Koinaka, Linda85, Midnight Writer Shadrach, Naruka, Stauneauge, animesnape21, bookivore, crimsonphoenix13, doralinda, gabicoesil, if i only had a name..., kitsune-princess94, lcgirl2006, loveshbhp, marble121, mashkitkat, moony-is-a-werewolf, natalie668, risi, twice-as-evil-as-you121212, and zoebeansmommy!

To my favoriters: Asphyxiatedmuse, Azil, Darling-Angel-Puff, DebsTheSlytherinSnapefan, Jemma 82, KageOokami69, KatAndMonkey, Midnight Writer Shadrach, TekJanson, animsnape21, blackkitsue, brzoskwinia, jason rose, moony-is-a-werewolf, munchnzoey, natalie668, puppyscreensavers, serenityba, taylor-996, and toobadIcan'twrite!

To my C2'ers: Harry's Revenge, Interesting Harry things, Misc., and Saiyuki 4!

To my reviewers: KatAndMonkey, Benners, animesnape21, n0b0dys_ang31, Pops, moony-is-a-werewolf, doralinda, hi-purr, Naruka, cookie monster, HeatherLB, Noc007, huh?, DebsTheSlytherinSnapefan, and munchnzoey!

Love you guys!


	53. Rash Action

The members of the Order of the Phoenix apparated outside of the Ministry of Magic.

"Walk behind me." Dumbledore said somberly and the others stood behind him as a great shield was erected. He walked toward the front of the building, all magic designed to keep him out crumbling and any one who tried to hinder them left laying incapacitated. The strong magic of ministry employees met the otherworldly magical shield wielded by Dumbledore and crumbled, many of the caster's wands exploding in smoke, flame, and splintered wood. They quickly moved along behind the shield, it faltering only to dissipate as they came to a hallway before the door to the Department of Mysteries.

The group followed behind Albus and entered to find one of the doors slightly ajar and another marked with a big red X. Sirius sprung forward toward the slightly open door only to be forcibly held back by Dumbledore.

"If you want to be of any help none of you will enter unshielded." He said and the entire group felt something warm encircle their bodies before he pushed the door open to reveal an almost comical sight.

Ron seemed to be swimming about in the ethereal glow which pervaded the room. His clothes were hanging off of him as he gaily floundered about. Ginny and Oleander were locked in a loving embrace giggling stupidly. Neville was hanging upside down and somehow hopping through the air as Luna sat meditatively talking and laughing with a group of people invisible to the members of the order.

"What is this?" Tonks asked at the same time Sirius demanded to know where Harry was.

"Tom has placed a variant of the Fidelius around the Hall of Prophecies." Dumbledore said darkly after several long minutes. "Harry is within at the mercy of Voldemort as we speak."

"Then break the damned thing!" Sirius cried.

"As there is no known way to break a standard fidelius it is even less likely that there would be a way to break one strengthened such as this one is. It was combined with several other dark charms. It will absorb the raw magical intent of anything we send toward it and grow even stronger."

"So you mean that there is nothing we can do!?" Sirius cried and Dumbledore nodded.

"No!" Sirius cried as he ran toward the warded door and began to drive his fists against it. "No! No! No!" He repeated over and over only to have the magic let out a sickening jolt beneath his fists and send him flying across the room. He hit the opposite wall with a crack and crumpled against the floor.

"Brilliant as ever Black." A mutter came from the back of the group of order members and they turned to see a rather apathetic looking Snape standing casually with his lithe arms folded across his chest. "Should we not do something about the children?" He added after several minutes of silence.

"They are safe as long as they remain ensnared by the room's enchantments." Dumbledore replied. "In the meantime Sirius must be revived and we must think of some way around the convoluted fidelius Tom has cast." He said and Remus immediately went to the unconscious Sirius' side. He followed his feet as if by compultion, for the minute all enmity forgotten. He levitated him away from the opposite side of the room and draped him across several desks and out of harm's way where he cast a quiet enervate. Sirius did not stir.

"Perhaps Snape could use his mark to break it?" Shacklebolt suggested and Dumbledore shook his head.

"The bond created by the dark mark has bound Snape to his Master however Voldemort is given free reign over him."

"Enervate!" Lupin cried from the back of the room. Still there was no response from Sirius.

"There must be ways around Voldemort's magic." Tonks said and Snape began to mock her for her stupidity when suddenly Remus cried from the back of the room.

"**Evigilo!**"

And yet Sirius would not wake.

"There must be something!" Another order member exclaimed and Dumbledore leaned against the wall dejectedly. Their fruitless musing was accompanied by the sounds of Remus shouting every healing/awakening charm he could recall at a thoroughly unresponsive Sirius.

"Stop." Dumbledore finally said and the order members' bickering stopped but Remus did not. "Stop Remus, if you keep shooting every spell in the book at him at random you will cause even more damage."

"Black deserves it. Did he honestly believe that love alone would enable him to beat down a powerful dark fidelius with his bare hands?" Snape muttered so only Remus, with his preternatural lupine hearing, would hear him. Remus growled imperceptivity as he stepped away from Sirius, his glare dampened by obvious worry.

"We have to find a way to get him out." The werewolf said as he put his head in his hands. He looks across at Tonks just in time to find her eyes lighting up. She had, had an idea.

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KatAndMonkey: Wow, I totally don't remember that brain thing at all. And I realize the whole deal with the prophecy and am definitely going somewhere with it. Trust me.

AN: FOR THE REST OF ARTF, ASSUME NOTHING. I am going places plotwise that you've probably never/ not often seen in Harry Potter fanfiction. I'll keep you guessing until the bitter end, so if things seem to be going in a direction that you don't like, don't count on it staying exactly that way for too long. One of my favorite past times is screwing with peoples' heads. I will endeavor to screw with yours. Thanks for reading!


	54. Sick

"I had never meant for your lover to come to any harm," Voldemort said as he took a step closer to Harry. The boy stood his ground. "I only assumed that you would need some incentive-"

"To be trapped and murdered?" Harry spat angrily and Voldemort shook his head and let out a gentle rolling chuckle.

"Is that what Dumbledore told you? It is false. Today, I only wish for you to retrieve something of utmost importance. The prophecy regarding you and I sits on one of these very shelves and only you can retrieve it. I only wish to hear it once, and then you may keep it and do whatever you like with it."

"You have tried to kill me nearly half a dozen times and you expect me to trust you?" Harry asked incredulously.

"If the prophecy says what I suspect then you will sooner find loyalty in me, than in any of those who uphold the side of _light_."

"What do you mean?"

"Behold the prophecy and behold the destiny that has been kept from you through the machinations of your _allies_." Voldemort said and suddenly stood behind Harry, several of his cadaverous fingers splayed against one of the boy's narrow shoulders. With every passing second he poured fourth more of his energy into Harry, who was so easily being swayed.

"I want to see Sirius." Harry insisted. And Voldemort nodded almost imperceptibly to one of the death eaters which stood on the circle. Almost instantaneously the death eaters who had stood inside their robes disappeared leaving only billowing black robes drifting to the ground. A prone figure lay in the middle of them.

"Sirius!" Harry cried as he fell on the ground beside his lover and gently rolled him over to reveal a bloodied face with two silver eyes gleaming through the crimson mess.

"H-h-Harry." The man stuttered weakly as Harry began to run his fingers through sweaty matted hair.

"Oh, Siri!" Harry cried as he kissed the man's forehead and heard a contented sigh escape him. He lightly kissed his lips.

"Severus crucio-ed him nearly to the breaking point." Voldemort said with a small smirk and Sirius let out a pained whimper. His eyes rolled back into his head as his hand clutched blindly at his younger lover's hands.

"Retrieve the prophecy and we will hear it together, for only you can retrieve it. Then you may leave." Voldemort said and suddenly Harry found himself standing before an infinite amount of shelves stacked higher than he could perceive.

"It will be on the shelf as far as you can reach, directly in front of you." The Dark Lord spoke softly and Harry felt his hands moving and his body stretching toward the mentioned orb as if of its own volition. He placed his hand in the exact spot he was told to place it in only to find the space empty. He was in trouble. And he knew it.

He felt the calm almost cordial atmosphere Voldemort had managed to induce disappear as he returned empty handed. In the moment the Dark Lord's ire seemed as if it could pierce even the essence of time.

"There is nothing there." He whispered and Voldemort let out an inhuman snarl before disappearing and leaving Harry to his own devices.

"Sirius!" Harry called as he attempted to find his way but only seemed to get even more lost with every turn. Suddenly he found himself face to face with a wild-eyed female death eater. She pointed the edge of her wand at his throat.

"Avada-" She began only to have her arm pulled away by a cold and nonchalant looking Sirius.

"Sirius!" Harry exclaimed as the man glared pointedly at Bellatrix.

"Under master's order we cannot kill him." Another voice sneered from the dark as a small group of masked death eaters entrapped them in tight circle.

"But, you were just crucio-ed!" Harry gasped in awe, seemingly oblivious to his surroundings. The other death eater's chortled callously and Sirius smirked.

"Indeed." Sirius replied in an uncharacteristically chilling drawl and in one fluid motion managed to both take several steps forward and pin Harry's abused body against the shelf behind him. He held him carelessly and began to ravage his mouth.

It was in that instant that Harry realized that it was not in fact his lover who had him in such a position but a cruel imposter. The other death eater's were laughing shrilly as his eyes finally focused enough to recognize marble grey eyes gleaming with twisted enjoyment, pallid skin, and silvery-blonde hair hanging low enough to tickle both the sides of his face and neck.

_Lucius Malfoy!? _

His mind screamed and his body began to quake with revulsion as teeth dug into his neck hard enough to make a heavily bleeding gash.

Lucius chuckled cruelly as he deepened the wound with his teeth. "You like this don't you Potter?" He asked cruelly as Harry started to scream in pain. Lucius stifled it by raping his mouth with a tongue slick with his own blood.

"You're sick." He hissed and licked away the bloody rivulets dripping down Harry's neck and forced the foul blood back into the boy's mouth.

Harry wanted to fight but as the shock finally wore off he found himself growing dizzy from blood loss. He unwilling crumbled in villain's arms, half responding in an unsure haze of humiliation, confusion, and in the last sages of consciousness, pleasure as he almost forgot the foul tang of blood an the unforgiving tongue, a mockery of passion, battering his young mouth.

It was at this moment that the Order finally broke through and found what appeared to be Sirius Black forcing blood down Harry's ravaged throat with a tongue. He let go and Harry crumbled to the ground. The man bowed mockingly and for a second the bloodied and cruelly smirking visage of Sirius faded and was revealed as Lucius Malfoy to the members of the order. Curses flew a split second too late, as Malfoy had already disappeared.

"Severus, come with me. We will take Harry and Sirius to the hospital wing. The rest of you, see to it that the children are returned safely." Dumbledore said. He levitated Harry into the air, cast a simple charm to stop the bleeding, and he, Harry, and Sirius disappeared.

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Author's Note/Review Replies

KatAndMonkey:Hermoine kind of weaves in and out.

AN: HAPPY FIRST NIGHT OF CHANUKAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (sorry if its spelled wrong. I've seen it spelled like nine different ways and have given up trying to do it correctly).


	55. Fire

Severus entered his manor to find Hermione sitting on the couch twisting her hands in her lap. He sighed with relief. It seemed that the piece of his soul which she held had finally seemed to blend with her own more evenly. He could feel it, for while her eyes were still slightly darker they were not as cold. The almost vampiric air around her was nearly gone, leaving a frightened adolescent in its wake. The poor girl looked fraught with worry and he berated himself inwardly for smiling. He had enjoyed the verbal sparring partner Hermione had become courtesy of his magic, but he knew he would not miss that particular girl.

He stopped short upon seeing her wide almost black eyes peering at him glistening with unshed tears.

"Where have you been!?" She exclaimed from the divan she was draped across. "I woke yesterday and you were gone!"

He fell to his knees on the couch beside her, taking one of her slightly chilled hands in his. "Would you allow me to show you?" He asked and Hermione nodded as she squeezed his hand tightly. With the other he angled her face so he could see clearly into her dark eyes and through them in order to best allow her into his mind.

The world disappeared as Hermione perceived all that had transpired through his eyes. Tears began to run unchecked from her eyes upon seeing what Lucius had done to Harry before the charm had collapsed in upon itself and knowing that the order members had only perceived the end of it. She watched Harry awaken and scream, attempting to tear himself away from the hospital bed, screaming about killing god damn mother-cunting shit eating mother fucking sodding Malfoy, the fact that Snape was dead, and a stolen prophecy. After Snape along with Pomfrey and Dumbledore managed to calm him and explain that Voldemort had not really killed Snape, rather he had killed an expendable young death eater using a polyjuice potion, Harry demanded to see Sirius.

Hermione watched as his lifeless face was revealed and his chest fell rhythmically with shallow breaths. She watched as Harry crawled into the bed next to the unconscious larger man. He entwined his limbs about him and buried his head into his neck as he sobbed.

Poppy made as if to move Harry and Dumbledore stopped her. He looked on with an air of complete sympathy. It was almost as if he understood exactly what Harry was feeling.

"Leave them be." His voice cracked as he whispered.

"But headmaster, it is highly-"

"Do not argue with me Poppy." He said quietly and turned away, leading Poppy away in order to leave Harry to his grieving. "You do not understand the shame and despair of those who feel that they have…" Dumbledore trailed off falling into nostalgia.

"That they have what, Headmaster?" The mediwitch asked and Dumbledore muttered a quick "Nothing" before leaving the room and telling Poppy to keep him updated on Harry's condition.

The flow of memories ended and Hermione collapsed against Snape in a fit of tears. He held her and stroked her hair, albeit hesitantly as she fell into his lap beside the sofa.

"Poor Harry! That damn mutt has got the common sense of a three year old and now his fiancée is paying for it!" She ranted and Severus felt his hand entwine gently in her hair as if it belonged there, all hesitancy gone. "I mean, I know that the Gryffindor motto might as well be _I'll think when I'm dead,_ but honestly! Does his brain remain in dog form all of the time!?"

"It wouldn't shock me." Severus replied quietly as though he couldn't help but comment and Hermione pulled back slightly, an eyebrow half-raised as tears dried on her cheeks and neck, but ceased to fall from her eyes. "But then again, after over a decade serving both The Old Serpent and The Mad Old Coot I doubt anything really could."

Hermione let out a snort despite herself and suddenly her gaze grew deep and malicious. Numerous dark ideas turned in her head and Snape cringed and inwardly gasped. He had expected to see himself in Hermione's eyes as he had during all of the other times he had seen such a look contort her face. However this time there was no trace of him in the eyes or aura of the witch straddled across his lap wearing only the dark silken nightclothes she had stolen from one of his drawers.

"When the time comes, I hope that you make Malfoy wish his whore of a mother had never spat him out." She said darkly in a voice devoid of any Snape-like inflection. A deep chill ran down his spine which he could not hide despite himself. Hermione felt it and quickly removed herself from his lap.

"I started to decipher the prophecy using your libraries." She said as she paced and Severus nodded, waiting for her to continue. "Being that I was not in my right mind today I only got the first line.

"_A boy born of fire lies in separate lives_: The first part refers to his astrological sign. Harry was born on July 31 which places him in about the ides of Leo. In astrology each sign corresponds to a planet which corresponds to an element. Leo is ruled by the sun and the sun corresponds with the element fire. Ironically enough, he is a Gryffindor of which the symbol is a lion and the house corresponds roughly to the element of fire. Being a Leo would, in fact, technically make him a "boy born of fire".

The second depends on whether "lies" is meant as repose, death, or that he is somehow deceiving us. It could refer to the fact that he lives almost a double life, one as Harry Potter: Savior of the Wizarding World and another as just some poor confused child who got dealt a bad hand. In that case it would be describing his life or it could even be hinting at the fact that Voldemort could control him, but I believe that it is referring to some sort of deep hidden deception with him."

"Something that would make Voldemort suddenly need him alive." Snape added and Hermione nodded.

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Author's Note/ Review Reply

KatAndMonkey: We'll see what happens. However, I can promise you that he will get his.

MERRY CHRISTMAS MY LOVELIES!


	56. Memory

The rest of Harry's fifth year passed in a daze of monotony. Like clockwork he would wake up, eat enough to placate those around him, go to class( and again do well enough as to not draw any extra attention to himself); lunch was an affair similar breakfast, and identical to dinner, and then after doing whatever homework he had completely enough to slide by unnoticed he would go to Sirius. He would curl himself about his lover's unresponsive body until someone wrenched him away.

For nearly the first two weeks he would weep every night. Then after that there were several nights of silence and finally he began to talk to Sirius. He spoke of his day, how he knew he was hurting his friends by acting the way he had been, and how he wish he would die and never wake. He spoke of his guilt, his shame, and his misery; but mostly of his love.

He blankly existed as he took his O.W.L's, not really even seeing the test as he took it. He could have barely recalled the Weasley Twins' dramatic exit minutes after he had seen it. Somewhere in his mind he registered Dumbledore's return to Hogwarts as well, but, never really realized it. All he ever seemed to remember that was that he had promised Sirius that he would come back earlier that night. He _knew_ that Sirius could hear him. And didn't talking to someone in a coma help them? Yes. It just had to. Of course, any logical human being knew that!

One sunny afternoon during the last Monday of Harry's fifth year he was called down to the headmaster's office. In a daze Harry nodded and left his transfiguration classroom. He walked the familiar path to the statue before the Headmaster's Office. The gargoyle jumped aside as he came toward it and he stepped onto the first stone stair. It immediately began to spiral upwards toward the office door. Soon he stood impassively before the door. He had not even knocked when he heard a soft "enter" come from behind the door. He lightly pushed the door ajar and slipped into the familiar office.

"Hello Harry." Dumbledore said somberly. There was no twinkle in his eyes and no mirth in his aura. Harry's eyes grew wide. He knew what Dumbledore was about to tell him.

_No._ He repeated inwardly over and over again. _No. No. No. No. No! _

"Harry." His inner monologue ceased at the soothing sound of Dumbledore's voice, if only for the moment. He gestured toward a chair before his desk and Harry glared at him. The old wizard looked taken aback for a split second before realizing what Harry had presumed the meaning of this visit to be.

"Sirius is fine Harry." Dumbledore said with a sad smile. "That is not why I have called you here this afternoon. You may relax." Dumbledore said and gestured toward one of the chairs before his desk again. Harry let out a sigh of relief, every muscle in his body physically relaxing somewhat as he sat down.

Harry began to apologize for being so rude but Dumbledore waved his behavior off, saying that he understood, before offering Harry some tea, which the boy took gratefully.

"I have called you to my office today to discuss what happened that night at the Ministry." Dumbledore watched sadly as Harry physically tensed again, the teacup started to shake and came close to spilling in his hand. "I am sorry my boy," Dumbledore said again. "You can begin when you are ready."

Dumbledore watched as the boy sat for nearly a quarter of an hour, seemingly gathering his thoughts. At the end of the fifteen minutes he looked up and peered into Dumbledore's eyes. "Could I just show you the memory?" He said quietly and Dumbledore nodded. He rose and silently led Harry over to his pensieve.

"May I?" Dumbledore asked as he raised his wand toward Harry's temple. The younger wizard nodded and Dumbledore barely touched the side of Harry's angular face with his wand, pulling the silvery memory out of his mind and into the pensieve. For several long minutes Harry stood alone as Dumbledore disappeared into his memory. Harry felt oddly empty but at the same time he felt a strange peace. His hand went to the scar on his neck, teeth marks, and he could not remember for the life of him how it got there. He stopped trying to remember. A weight was lifted.

Suddenly he noticed a pair of piercing blue eyes on him. Dumbledore was looking at him with shock, sympathy, and curiosity.

"I am sorry Harry." Dumbledore said after a long while and Harry only shrugged.

"I don't even know what for." He said and Dumbledore placed a hand on his shoulder.

"May I keep the memory until tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sure Headmaster." Harry said and was dismissed. He walked away only to stop in the doorway. "Sir?" Harry asked as he turned around to face the older wizard. Dumbledore looked up from his desk, silently asking him to continue.

"Sirius will stay here until he wakes up right?" Dumbledore nodded. "Could I…err…see him over the summer?"

The headmaster smiled. "I don't see why not." Harry's face brightened. "Several weeks will be all that you need to strengthen the wards at your family's home. At the end of June someone will come for you."

"Thank you." Harry said with a smile and disappeared from the office. Dumbledore's face immediately darkened. He rushed over to the penseive and watched the images he had pulled from Harry's mind. He returned to his desk and placed his head in his hands.

"It is as I feared."

* * *

Author's Note/ Review Replies:

Narias: Thanks for the review and all of the favorites! Glad you like it.

KatAndMonkey: I always found her to be a nagger so, to me, that seemed like the way she would act toward someone she cared about. She will probably drift into his head a few more times. Sorry if it annoys you. I can't really think of a better way to get certain plot points across.

Author's note: "Tell me no stories and I'll tell you no lies. No one wants to hurt me, but everybody tries." Guess the song and the artist and you win my eternal affection! Forever. No joke. Since my girlfriend's pissing me off it's up for grabs. Also, I'm getting my wisdom teeth out on Tuesday because my goddamn parents don't understand that the only fucking time you should go to the dentist is when you are in pain. So what if your teeth are a little yellow? A little crooked? Too pointed? Too numerous? Are we really, as a society, that vain? (Rhetorical question)....... Yeah, so there most likely won't be any updates for a while. And if there are I wouldn't suggest taking them too seriously as I will be high off my ass when I write them. (I plan to put my oxy in a pez dispenser, bring it to school, and pop more than Casanova). SCHWANG!


	57. Sitting In A Tree

Lucius Malfoy walked into his home to find an enraged Narcissa standing in the entrance hall with her arm's crossed and her statuesque face twisted into an unprepossessing glower. He fought the urge to roll his eyes.

_What could I have possibly done now?_ He wondered as he threw his cloak off his shoulders and several house elves appeared out of nowhere to gather it before disappearing once more. He looked into one of the mirrors which lined the hall and smirked at his reflection, his wife's reflected in the background. Suddenly his smirk disappeared as he realized that when his wife was angry she took on the appearance of a fire breathing dragon, making him the prettier of the two.

"What is it Narcissa?" He asked, if only to take his mind off of how feminine he appeared in this light. He had started to contemplate growing a beard or a mustache when suddenly he was overcome by a blinding pain. He crumpled under his wife's crucio. When the pain finally ceased he lay in a quivering heap on the floor beneath his enraged wife.

"You dare lay a hand on me after touching that filthy potter boy! You dare to sully me with lips that have tasted the vial pleasure of such plebian scum!"

To the elder Malfoy's pain addled brain this sounded vaguely like an accusation of him cheating. Experience told him that, as he had been greeted similarly on three separate occasions. None of the previous rounds of torture had been justified as, if nothing else, Lucius Malfoy was faithful to his wife. He was too afraid of his father-in-law to be anything but.

"All lies…" He muttered meekly.

Nearly twenty minutes later (just as he was finally recovering and able to think) he found himself on the front steps of his house with his furious wife standing in the doorway and a shocked looking son standing behind her.

"You kissed Harry Pot-" Was the last Lucius heard of his abashed looking progeny as the door was slammed in his face. Suddenly it all clicked in Lucius's mind and he let out a sigh. He knew that his wife would come around eventually (once she realized that it was for the sake of sport), but until then he found himself in need of a place to stay.

* * *

Author's Note/ Review Reply

It's a short one, I know. Oh, and there is a poll! Would you rather Harry go completely "dark" and join an obviously bonkers Voldemort, Harry stay completely "light" and keep with the manipulative old crackpot , or join our favorite couple in their little bit of super special awesome subterfuge and do _whatever_ that entails. The next chapter goes up when I feel that I have enough feedback as I'm going to have to start steering it in a certain direction and I am not steering this anywhere until I have a general feeling of where you want it to go. Out of the three options, give me the two you like the best. Gracias.

KatAndMonkey: Dumbledore will see the memory in an upcoming chapter and the whole issue of Sirius' consciousness really depends on the vote.


	58. Affairs of the Heart

The lovely summer sunlight streamed in through the open windows of the hospital wing. A blue sky dotted with clouds made for an almost fairy-tale like milieu. However, it fell perfunctorily on the deaf ears and blind eyes of both godfather and godson. Sirius could experience nothing and had not for weeks, and Harry was apathetic to all but the unresponsive man he treated with his soft caresses and gentle words. On this day the boy's hands were holding fast to the older man's hair, his legs entwined about one of the thicker longer legs of his lover's shell.

"They want me to believe that you can't hear me." Harry muttered. There was no feeling in his words. It was only a matter-of-fact deadpan spread thinly across the deceptively bright summer air. His voice was dry and cracked, as if he himself would soon crumble and disappear.

"They want me to believe that you can't hear me."

His eyes were empty.

"They want me to believe that you can't hear me." He said again, a little louder, his voice drifting across the hollow void of summer light and stone. The voice echoed off of the walls which kept him restrained as much as the lifeless body which kept him grounded. Sirius was of stone, like a fixture or an ornament, unfeeling and unsympathetic. The inconsolable grief turned void redoubled off of him and returned to his Harry. It always did and Sirius was not conscious enough to register it as he lay in silence.

"They want me to believe-"

---

Hermione ripped herself from the dolorous happenings hundreds of miles away. She could no longer watch Harry suffer. She had thought that perhaps his recent move from the Dursley's to Grimmauld place would bring him some sort of happiness, but he had seemed to suffer it with as much apathy as he did the rest of his life. She looked down at her notes; hundreds of pages of both written parchments and books littered the floor. She had the first half of the prophecy deciphered, but at that minute she decided that it would be more important to find a way to bring Sirius back. She cast one charm to organize all of her findings on the prophecy. She was about to hide them away when suddenly Snape appeared.

"What have you found?" He asked with a slight smile. It was Saturday and he seemed to be in a rather good mood. Hermione noted this but did not mention it or indicate in any way that she had noticed. Her own sadness was lifted and she did not bother to mask her blatant pleasure.

"Quite a bit over the last week actually." She replied and with a flick of her wand several stacks of paper, several rolls of parchment, and quite a number of books sat before her on the library's worktable. Severus smiled to himself at this. He had never seen such a spell before but it did seem so very…_Hermione. _

"We have already determined that "_A boy born of fire" _refers to his astrological sign. _"lies in separate lives" _I believe is tied in with "_For the unseen mark he bares within"._ Basically, I am assuming that when Voldemort gave him that scar nearly sixteen years ago he also gave him something else, something within him that is not apparent."

"As of yet." Severus said in all seriousness and Hermione blushed slightly before moving on.

"_he must sacrifice". _Whatever danger he carries will lead him to sacrifice himself ultimately. "_Two graves and a shattered soul lest the enemy may rise" _I believe is basically saying that in the end their will be two graves, one with Voldemort's body and one with Harry's. The shattered soul could be either of them depending on the situation and whether the meaning is literal or figurative. "_For the twice defeated there shall never be a thrice"_: Third times the charm. "_Darkness given free reign again to him who belies"_ It's a warning. There will be no stopping the deceiver on his third attempt. He will prevail." She finished. And both seemed to ruminate for several long minutes before Severus finally spoke.

"_The epitaph ensconced within him is their foulest vice _

_As there is no way to convalesce what has been destined awry _

_Only in his untimely wake can we forestall our demise _

_A lesser entity of empty vengeance must in separate sepulchers lay_" Severus's eyes grew wide. He looked as if an idea had struck him just as he felt the tingle he did when his home's wards were breached. He recognized the presence and was distracted.

_Fuck. _

"Hermione! Malfoy's here. You must hide."

"Where?" She whispered and Severus brandished his wand, pointed it at Hermione, and muttered a spell. Hermione disappeared.

Snape then apparated to his front door and opened it to find a rather rumpled looking Lucius Malfoy standing on his porch.

"Has your dearest wife thrown another tantrum?" He deadpanned and a scowl crossed the blonde's handsome features.

"I am not in the mood for your snide comments."

"And dearest Cissy was apparently not in the mood for your shenanigans."

"Listen, you overblown bat of a wizard; either let me in or prepare to die a cruel and unusual death."

"Listen, you overtly-effeminite old farce of an aristocrat; either tell me exactly why dearest Cissy has cast you out of Malfoy manner for the second time in a year or prepare to become a mendicant."

"Because I had sex with her-"

"Apparently you've lost your touch Malfoy."

Lucius glared but continued, letting it go without rebuttal. "…directly after I played godfather to the little arsefucker at the ministry."

Snape seemed to outwardly consider this even whilst he wretched inwardly. "You mean you still had his scent and…whatever else…on you when you jumped your wife?"

"Yes…" Lucius ground out a Snape let out a smug chortle.

"This really does explain things." Snape mentioned off-handedly and allowed the other man to push past him and enter his house.

-----

Hermione looked around. She was sitting in the very center of a large bed. A black canopy was draped about her and plush black silk was beneath her. Upon trying to move she only sunk and fell into the bed. A familiar scent surrounded her and she sighed.

_Severus…_

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Author's Note/Review Replies:

Please refrain from murdering me in my sleep for not updating in almost a month….. I realize that I left you at a critical juncture and at a total cliffhanger considering that when I left off A) Lucius had just been kicked out by "Dearest Cissy" for playing "Godfather to the little arsefucker at the ministry", leaving him in need of a place to stay, B) Sirius was just put into a magical coma he may/may not wake up from leaving our poor little Harry all by his lonesome, C) A revamped prophecy (FEAR MY MAD POETRY SKILLZAH!) may/may not spell doom for the wizarding world, D) Hermione has a little Severus in her and may/may not end up with big Severus in her, E) Severus has now become a triple agent (Hint: that can't last forever), F) Harry is hanging in the balance of three different plotlines with no indication of which way it will go, and last but not least G) you don't know where exactly Dumbledore or Voldemort stands. Direct your ire at the worst writer's block in history. Oh, and since only one person voted, if you have a problem with the plot, suck it up. If you want to yell at me for being an ass, a pervert, or for being the worst updater in history then go ahead. I totally agree with you. But if the plot pisses you off, than you can kindly piss off. I try to write things so that people enjoy them, but you guys really didn't let me know what you would enjoy. That being said, I sincerely hope that you are at least mildly entertained by the rest of this. I can't promise that I'll update regularly, but I can promise you that I'll do my best to make this pretty fucking rockin.

KAtAndMonkey: "Lu Lu". I am totally going to call him that from now on. And Harry doesn't exactly go crazy....

aliano: Good look. Thanks. I actually completely agree with you.


	59. Fool

"Harry…"

Harry opened his eyes and found himself standing in a rather lavish dining room. He found this rather odd considering he had fallen asleep at Grimmauld place. He raised his head to see Voldemort standing before him. He looked more human than Harry had ever seen him, and almost handsome even though his skin still held a slightly otherworldly pallor.

"Fuck off!" Harry cried and backed away, looking for a way out only to find the hall stretching endlessly on in all directions. He was caught in a dangerous state between anger and fear. The reason he had been gliding through life with all of the apparent ease and reality of a phantasm was in front of him. The man who took his parents and eventually his lover seemed so tangible, only to disappear when Harry lunged at him.

"Calm yourself Potter." Voldemort drawled and Harry felt one of his algid hands grasp his shoulders almost sensually, his long fingers drumming against his protruding collar bone through the thin material of his shirt. Harry immediately felt calm wash over him. Suddenly he was sitting in a chair, the Dark Lord across from him.

"Harry-"

"No!" Harry cried. "Fucking Malfoy all but…but…"

"It was done of his own volition. The man harbors rather…interesting tastes." Voldemort said and Harry did not even notice that his anger was slowly dissipating. Fortunately Harry was too wrapped up in his emotions to argue logically or notice much.

"And Sirius-"

"Was foolish and paid a price. None of my men ever came within casting distance of him."

"And why did you leave me with them if you want me on your side?" Nearly all of the venom was drained from his voice. The boy sounded unsure of himself.

"You failed me Harry. I was angry. Does failure not deserve punishment?"

"I…I suppose." Harry agreed, completely forgetting that (to his knowledge) the failure at the ministry was in no way his fault. He felt like a child again.

"Indeed," Voldemort said. "All though I must admit I was hasty as it was Dumbledore who deserves the punishment for the failure at the ministry and not yourself."

"Dumbledore?"

"You can only retrieve a prophecy when it is intended for you. I can sense a powerful block in your mind. He led you here and had you retrieve it for him. I can guarantee you that he has it in his possession and is keeping it from you."

"But why?"

"So you cannot learn the truth."

"What's the truth?"

"That neither of us could live should the other perish. That night sixteen years ago your mother only managed to entwine our souls. Why do you think you are a parselmouth? That scar on your forehead. I even bear some pieces of you."

"You do?"

"Yes, your patronus is my patronus for example. Originally my patronus was a serpent." Voldemort than cast a patronus. A gleaming black and silver stag erupted from his wand. "That is what I believed the prophecy to say. That is why I wanted it. I wanted to confirm it. All these years Dumbledore has led me to believe that I must kill you for my cause to survive, however I was curious after seeing all that we have in common. These cannot be coincidences. It would be absurd."

There was a long silence during which Harry looked quite pensive. "So, what does this mean?" He finally asked and Voldemort smiled slightly.

"That Dumbledore has had your funeral planned since you were an infant and has beaten you into submission in the mean time."

Another semi-sensuous caress and Harry found himself staring wide at the canopy of his bed back in Grimmauld Place. He blinked and rolled over, looking at the muggle alarm clock he had brought with him. It was one in the morning. The eerie silence of the usually noisy old house told him that there was currently an order meeting going on below.

"Keeping even more from me." He muttered half heartedly and drifted back to sleep.


	60. Our Harry

"We're losing him." Dumbledore said sadly as he looked at the rest of the order members.

"At this rate when Voldemort tries to kill him he'll just lay silent and take it." Tonks thought aloud and the rest of the order members looked at her appraisingly. "I am just saying what everyone's thinking. And I couldn't really even blame Harry if he did just that. No one with a heart could. That boy's life hasn't exactly been as cushy as Snape here likes to think."

Snape scowled. "Taken over the position of permanent thorn in my side after your blockhead cousin is no longer able?" He spat back and Tonks looked hurt at the mention of for a split second before recovering nicely.

"Jealous of Harry's upbringing are you? No need to be a snit about it." She asked and Snape was about to reply when Dumbledore intervened.

"Either make yourselves useful or go be immature elsewhere. Our Harry is in need."

"What he needs is the damned mutt." Snape muttered and Tonks glared at him.

"I bet if we let him take a few shots at Snape's bits he'd feel a hell of a lot better."

"Dora please!" Lupin exclaimed and she immediately quieted.

Snape clapped slowly. "Congratulations on leashing your bitch." He drawled and Lupin only glared passively as arguments over what to do about Harry's current state erupted. Snape tuned out upon hearing a familiar voice drift across his consciousness.

_I found a way to save Black. _

_Go on. _

_It hasn't been used in nearly a thousand years and if you get caught you get life in Azkaban at best, but it should do it. _

_Why can nothing be easy? _

_Anything is easy if you do it right. _

_Indeed. _

Snape lost concentration upon noticing almost the entire table staring at him. He felt Dumbledore trying to penetrate his mind and pushed him out only to notice that the corners of his mouth were turned up in what could only be called a _grin. _He scowled at himself only to the direct his ire at every last person at the table.

"Care to share your thoughts Severus?" Dumbledore asked darkly and Snape nodded.

"There are…methods through which he can be returned to us."

"Judging by your smile I would say that they involve either human sacrifice or the severe torture of newly born kittens." Tonks muttered and Remus kicked her under the table.

"I am not sure of the specifics." Snape deadpanned and the rest of the table looked strangely at him.

"We will not stoop to the level of all that we are fighting against!" Molly Weasley declared and the rest of the group agreed.

"Even to save our cause?" Snape asked and before he could stop himself the words escaped him. "You have to know this idealism will be our downfall. The days are growing darker and we must adapt. Self-imposed lines and limits do not hold the weight of millions of lives in the eyes of the virtuous." He said just as blandly and the others only continued to stare at him. There was silence until Dumbledore spoke after nearly ten minutes of thinking.

"If Harry needs a reason to fight then we will give him one."

* * *

Author's Note/ Review Replies:

Anyone else hear about the second grader in Philly who brought in a bag of heroin for show and tell?

KatAndMonkey: Who could blame her? And if you hate Harry now...just wait. It will be a damn while before he stops being such a fucker. In fact, throughout a good deal of the sequal he'll be a fucker, just on a completely different level. And as long as I don't have to write any more papers on the adverse sociological effects of sexual repression in antebellum America, there won't be any more ridiculously long waits in between updates. I'll try to get one or two out a week. Thanks for being such a loyal reviewer.


	61. Hope

It was noon when Harry stumbled blindly down the stairs. He had woken up hours ago but had lay in bed staring at the ceiling and wallowing in memories until his stomach rumbled so severely that it nearly shook him. He had groaned as he rose and threw on a pair of old slippers. He then trudged down the long hallways lined with grotesque house elf heads and down to the kitchen where he found a pensive Dumbledore sitting at the table.

"Good morning sir." Harry said quietly as he reached for the charmed plate of food Mrs. Weasley always left on the counter for him. He vaguely registered Dumbledore returning the same empty pleasantry as he sat a polite distance away and began to absently nibble on a piece of fried bread. Were he more conscious he would have noticed Dumbledore shutting the kitchen doors with a wave of his wand and suddenly looking incredibly serious.

"Harry." The old wizard called for him several times before Harry finally lifted his head and regarded the man with tired eyes, only half-asking him to continue.

"I am going to be blunt," Dumbledore said and the younger wizard still gazed through him with tepid indifference. "Voldemort's magic holds sway over nearly everything he touches. His evil has taken root within Sirius and it is that which keeps him imprisoned within himself, dead to us. Upon his defeat all traces of his magic will start to slowly deteriorate. Upon Voldemort's defeat Sirius should start to wake, Harry. You will have your lover back in the end."

He had not expected Harry's reaction. He read the thoughts clearly from Harry's mind as he muttered something and his head fell back down to contemplate what was left of his sausages and boiled eggs.

_Not if I'm dead you great idiot. I'll die. I don't give a fuck. You could kill me right now and I wouldn't stop you. Just stop lying to me. _

"So there is hope after all." Harry muttered bitterly after a long while and put his plate back on the counter before shuffling out of the room.

Dumbledore sat deep in thought for a long while, telling himself that he had done the right thing and would do the right thing. The boy was young and there were some things he did not need to know or understand. He was a child in Dumbledore's eyes and in a twisted way the son he could never have, a vicarious extension of his own person in so many ways. He only wanted to protect him, and yet his own ambition and possessiveness would often hurt the boy more than it would help.

He only wanted him to be happy and have all the things he himself could never obtain, as any good parent would want for their child. However, for all his power he could never obtain what he truly wanted. For all his skill and prowess anything important would elude him. It always had eluded him. He saw the same frustration and the same ill fated luck with his boy, and it pained him. He could never seem to do right by him.

"I want to know about the prophecy."

Dumbledore looked up to see late afternoon light drifting through the kitchen windows and a determined looking Harry standing with his arms folded across his chest in the doorway to the kitchen.

"Voldemort had me reach onto the shelf to get it, and it was gone. Only I could have retrieved it and I can't remember ever being in the department of mysteries before. When did you do it? When did you force me to get it for you?" Harry spat and Dumbledore's eyes widened.

"Harry I-" Dumbledore began as he inwardly breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that Voldemort did not have the prophecy and immediately began to worry as to who did.

"And why lie about it!? Why not let me know what it is!? Why lie to the Order!?" Harry cried.

"Harry, as you saw for yourself, the shelf was empty. There was nothing there and there has not been for a long time. Being who the prophecy concerned, it was taken away to a forgotten place. The men who hid it were killed so the secret could never be revealed. No one knows where it is now. Voldemort is on a wild goose chase Harry."

"Why hide that, then?" Harry asked suspiciously. "Can't you at least tell the kid you plan on martyring what the fuck he's dying for and why?"

"You are not going to die Harry. You _will not _die." There was a rare fire in Dumbledore. "What must be done in order to ensure that you get the life you deserve is irrelevant. If nothing else I will give you that. The cost does not matter." He finished quietly with a strange look in his eyes. Harry only looked slightly convinced.

"Call me ambitious, call me ruthless, think me a conniving monster and worse than Voldemort if that is how you would remember me, but know that I would sooner see all that I have set into motion destroyed than martyr you." He then placed one of his large weathered hands on Harry's shoulder in the exact same way that Voldemort had done only there was nothing telling of sensuality or danger. Harry only felt warmth from the older man.

"Do you understand?" Dumbledore asked and Harry nodded.

"Good." The elderly wizard replied and cupped his cheek lightly before striding out of the room.

* * *

Author's Note/ Review Replies:

KnM: The next Death Eater meeting will be coming up in a few chapters. You should enjoy that if you like our boy snarky. ^^

Author's Note: Anybody know anything about Lord Byron? I'm drafting a historical-fiction novel about him.


	62. The Recluse

"When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer." Hermione muttered as she practiced wandless glamours, changing her appearance effortlessly from man, to woman, to every last Hogwarts student she could remember before transforming to her newly found Animagus form, a brown recluse spider of average size. She crawled about the ceilings and walls in shadow, lazily stringing webs in obscure patterns as she thought of all that she had learned. She had settled in a corner when Lucius Malfoy strode in looking royally pissed from his own temporary room in the manor. Hermione rolled her eyes at his third or fourth display since he had arrived.

"Damn Potter." He slurred and unceremoniously plopped on a sofa. "Damn Narcissa and her god-damned father." The spider could be seen on the ceiling shaking its head seemingly massaging the sides of its aforementioned head with two of its front legs. Suddenly Malfoy looked up and noticed the small spider high above on the ceiling.

"Fucking Snape has spiders. I'd thought he'd have bats." Malfoy said and cackled inanely at his own joke before haphazardly lifting his wand. "Crucio!" He yelled and Hermione barely managed to escape as recluses are not notoriously fast spiders.

"Crucio!" He cried again and again with poor Hermione barely escaping before taking another deep drink from his bottle and finally falling unconscious on the floor.

Hermione crawled to the floor and abruptly changed to her human form. She was dressed only in one of Severus's long black bathrobes. She bent beside the sleeping aristocrat and briefly contemplated transforming again and giving him a nice bite on the cheek. Hermione had read up on brown recluse spiders and learned that the bite of a recluse spider, while often painless and unnoticeable, could lead to dermonecrotic lesions.

In other words, Lord Malfoy would awaken to an unpleasant but seemingly benign sensation in his cheek which would slowly become a festering wound as his face was painfully eaten away by the venom, taking years to heal and leaving hideous scars. While such a thing was rare, it was certain with the aid of a few minor spells. With a few more spells the effects could last for years and be untreatable by magic and the scars would never fade.

She hummed with approval at her own idea before her eyes traveled to his groin of their own accord. A cruel grin split her lips.

She murmured under her breath and bit back a dark chuckle as she undid his pants with a magic. The average-sized pale member flopped gracelessly against the unconscious man's leg as Hermione ended the spell. She turned into her spider form and briefly readied her fangs before realizing that she could not rot away the man's penis without arousing suspicion.

"Damn." She muttered as she gathered the long black robes around her. She strode away, but not before carefully making sure the flaccid penis of the intoxicated lord Malfoy was cradled in his hand.

Once Hermione was finally safely tucked away in Snape's chambers and idea struck her and she grinned evilly. She shed the robe had sat naked in an old black chair she had claimed for her own with an old book on dark magic. She pursed her lips before speaking.

"Accio all of the hangover cures in the manor."

As she read a neat stack of identical labeled bottles formed at her feet.

* * *

Author's Note/Review Replies:

KnM: All questions will be answered eventually. Trust me. We'll burn those bridges after we cross them.

Author's Note: I got my eyebrows done and had an allergic reaction to the wax so now my eyebrows are swollen as shit. If Quasimodo and that klingon dude from Star trek had a baby, that poor unfortunate-looking soul's eyebrows would probably look exactly like mine. Ah, what a tangled web we weave. The quote at the beginning was stolen from Plutarch (or Hans Gruber if you prefer).Oh, and if you like Shakespeare go get the Merchant of Venice movie (the version with Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons). It is excellent.


	63. Conquest

"Do you have any idea how rare and expensive most of these items are?" Snape asked as he perused the list Hermione had given him. Just as he finished speaking he came across Twenty One Phoenix Ashes and the Heart of a Cambion.

"What in Merlin's name is a Cambion?" He asked as Hermione sighed and passed him another list, this one with the steps it would take to brew Åndeliv.

"Nine months! What are we? Concocting a blasted fetus?" He said as he glanced over the ridiculously complex directions. Hermione let out another sigh.

"Åndeliv requires twenty one ingredients. Nine are illegal, six incredibly rare and nearly impossible to procure, three can only be found in Scandinavia, and two come from creatures which are either extinct or all but nonexistent."

"That only adds up to twenty." Severus pointed out as he pondered what on earth a Hamingja was and why exactly he needed to borrow one.

"The twenty first would be the human sacrifice. It must either be a newly born baby or a nearly dead old witch or wizard."

"And how do we get what need from the extinct creatures?" Severus asked as he looked at the word "Dragon's Blood" and prayed that it was alluding to the herb mixture. He would simply pretend that he hadn't heard what Hermione had just said, though he couldn't help but note her pained expression.

"We must have the hair of a finfolk. Finfolk can be found with a simple spell but are difficult to capture as they are shapeshifters and can only be found on the shores of The Isles of Orkney in the spring and summer months. They also take pleasure in luring in their victms. In order to capture one we would have to travel there by midseptember."

He watched as Hermione looked slightly uncomfortable and worried at her lip before continuing. "The other ingredient would be the heart of a cambion. Being that there has not been a living cambion in nearly six hundred years there would only be one way to get the heart of one. You see, a cambion is a halfbreed. When an incubus sets upon a mortal woman he will leave her with his seed and she shall bear a cambion five months later-a half demon. We would summon an incubus and it would impregnate me-"

"No." Severus snapped. "I will not summon a demon and hand you over like a concubine!"

"Severus, incubi feed on pleasure. It is not in their nature to hurt their conquests-"

"No!" His eyes filled with subdued possessive fire. "You will not be some demon's _conquest_!" He growled the world conquest as if it were a grave insult.

"And a virgin is a rare treat for such a creature, he would be very gentle." Hermione replied. Her tone was firm and even though her voice was not raised her annoyance was apparent.

Severus' eyes widened at this. The anger he wore clearly on his face turned to disbelief. Unbeknownst to Hermione the disbelief was as much at the thoughts which ran through his head then at how nonchalant she had become. Unable to stop himself the man voiced his thoughts.

"You want a demon to take your virginity?"

"No." She answered without missing a beat, her cheeks reddening nicely. Her eyes wandered to the floor and then to his. Severus felt a rather large lump form in his throat. She watched him with dark eyes, as if asking him what was to come, as he rose and stepped toward her. The library seemed to have somehow lengthened as he ventured toward her. Her gaze was almost clinical.

An eternity later he found himself standing beside her, his long fingers entwined with her own more delicate digits. He gently guided her up from the chair and moved to face her. His hands lingered mere seconds longer than necessary, his usual grace so ingrained that even as his mind drifted his movements were mesmerizing. Several pallid fingers traced the side of her face. With this slow caress he tilted her head slightly so she could look into his eyes. They had been dancing around one another for far too long.

Fathomless black eyes met nearly black eyes.

He felt her pulse racing as one of his fingers traced a line along her throat as he gently guided her toward him. The air hung thick.

"SEVERUS! WHERE ARE YOU!"

Both groaned as Lucius Malfoy's voice rang throughout the manor. The silencing charm Severus had cast allowing his voice to disturb them but neither of them to be heard from within.

"I want him gone." Hermione said; her voice slightly husky. A twinge of desire assaulted the older man as he pulled away, sent Hermione to his bedroom to hide with a flick of his wand and disappeared from the room.

Hermione had gone from months imprisoned within his home, to nearly a summer a prisoner within her prison. He pictured her sprawled out on his black silk bed, waiting for him and a sharp shiver crawled down his spine as he arrived in the hallway to find a smirking Malfoy.

"There will be a meeting tonight." The man said and Snape fought the urge to strangle him. Only the fact that the man could get him almost any ingredient he would need for the Åndeliv he would be making with his innumerable connections and endlessly opulent wealth stopped him.

"Indeed." Snape replied with his usual tone. This only reminded him that in between being a double agent, death eater meetings, order meetings, missions for both sides, teaching, and marking a bunch of undecipherable essays written by the seemingly illiterate he was supposed to secretly brew the most convoluted potion he had ever had the misfortune to encounter and gather all of the ingredients. He inwardly groaned. Someone was trying to kill him. Slowly. There was no other explanation.

"Narcissa's taking me back. Apparently painting the current Lord Malfoy a lecherous pedophile is sullying the family name." The blonde said almost triumphantly. Snape did not reply. "I suppose I owe you a favor."

Snape snorted. "I'd say that you owe me several favors."

Lucius rolled his eyes and the pair stared at each other for a while before Lucius departed. Snape returned to his room to find it empty. Minutes later he found Hermione writing a brewing schedule for the Åndeliv as well as when exactly they would get the ingredients.

* * *

KnM: Thanks! And Lucius will get his eventually....probably

AN: I am taking a creative writing class and so far have written the only decent short story. We've only been through about half of the class, but it still makes me feel like a special snowflake. ^^


	64. Inbred Twits: The Sequel

"I have had another correspondence with Potter." The Dark Lord said. "Dumbledore has apparently locked him in a safe house to reinforce the idea that I intend to do him harm. However, thanks to Snape's incredibly effective Occlumency lessons," The wizard paused with a sadistic grin and inclined his head toward a stoic Severus before continuing. "I have been conversing with the young man on a nearly daily basis. He finds our time together…enlightening."

The death eaters present omitted dark chortles in a timely chorus. "He may even come willingly should Dumbledore continue being such a fool." More chortles ensued.

"Snape, have you been able to gather the location of the safe house from the old fool should Harry decide he wishes to escape?"

"Not yet, my lord. Only Dumbledore knows its location as of yet." Snape replied and Voldemort let out a sigh.

"See to it that it is discovered. Should Harry decide to leave I want to be able to send for him immediately. When unchained he will be a most powerful ally."

"Unchained, my lord?" Lucius Malfoy asked, concealing his lascivious undertone well enough to fool everyone aside from Snape and Voldemort. Snape artfully held his disgust while the latter cast a dark look at his vassal.

"Either out of blindness or his own agenda Dumbledore has kept the boy from reaching his full potential. With the proper tutelage he should be second only to myself. He will be able to destroy _any_ who he deems worthy." The quiet threat was there and Lucius recoiled. Snape smirked inwardly.

"The only thing keeping the boy indebted to Dumbledore is that were he to come with us he would not be able to see his lover, as there is no subtle way to remove him."

"We could obliviate everyone and take him." Bellatrix offered.

"Are you mad? Dumbledore would see through that in an instant." Her husband countered and bickering ensued, nearly everyone in the room taking sides. Snape felt a pressing need to bash his head against a wall. He watched the Dark lord unobtrusively beckon Lucius from the bickering. The blond strode over, Voldemort whispered something in his ear, and he walked away looking endlessly pleased.

Not much later Voldemort cast crucios on the more obnoxious death eaters and the meeting came to a close. Just as Lucius was about to apparate away Snape cornered him.

"It is time for you to repay me, Lucius." He said and they both apparated to his manor. They were sitting in the drawing room, sipping wine when Snape passed him a piece of parchment.

"Procure these items for me and I will consider your debt paid." Lucius unfolded the paper and read it.

-_Twenty one phoenix ashes _

_-Fang of an Ajatar _

_-Four talons of a gagana _

_-One rough diamond _

_-Seven Stones of Lapis Lazuli _

_-One Ground Alicorn _

_-A Basin of liquid gold_

"What in Merlin's name are you brewing?" Malfoy asked and Snape glared at him.

"Very well." Malfoy drawled after several minutes of heavy silence. "I'll get your ingredients."

"Good." Snape replied and Lucius strode out of his house.

* * *

KnM: Just wait. It will blow your mind.

AN:Why must a modicum of humanity exceed the feeble efficacy of the vast majority? Emotion has become vice, compassion has turned to dust; and I am tired of fucking bitches!


	65. Dangerous Creatures

Dangerous Creatures

Snape returned to his manor Friday night after one of the best weeks he had experienced in ages. Potter was gone, Voldemort had only called one short meeting early in the week and there had been no meetings for the order. The students may have been insufferable and dimwitted, but he had more important things to think about than their imminent failure.

He had tried to keep her from his head long enough to grade papers and instill slight fear, but had given up. In fact, it was such torment that had put him in a good mood. Luckily he had enough control to avoid looking as if he were daydreaming like a schoolgirl for a week straight (even when he happened to be).

The thought of humming crossed his mind as he ordered one of the house elves to make dinner for two and have it brought to his study where he was certain Hermione would be. He walked quickly to the halls of his home and came to the large wooden door of his study. The cadence of rapid pacing came from within.

In a flash the door opened and Hermione stood before him dressed in what looked to be one of his outfits from years ago, transfigured to fit. He marveled slightly at her ability to make a pair of simple black trousers and long white shirt look passable when he suddenly noticed the strange net in her hand.

"Hermione, where did you get that?" He asked as he looked warily at the strange pentagonal shape and foreboding green glow it emanated.

"I went to Knocturne Ally disguised. I stole it from Driscoll and Teague. They have everything and anything related to Celtic creatures. Now come on. It's midseptember. We will be lucky to find any at all." She said before her hair became black and shortened. Her features quickly changed to that of a stereotypical young Irish boy.

"Wandless glamours?" Severus asked and the small Irish boy before him nodded happily. "Show off." He muttered and the boy giggled in a way that no self-respecting member of the male species would ever consider. Severus tapped his wand to his nose and a façade so similar that there would be no doubting that they were father and son materialized. The boy then wrapped himself around his father.

"Where are we going?" Severus asked.

"Copinsay. It's a wildlife preserve, one of the uninhabited Orkney Islands."

Severus nodded and the pair disappeared.

They landed on stark almost entirely green island which seemed to be low to the sea on one side and raise to sharp cliff on the other. The landscape was green but stark and the sky a foreboding grey. The sea, only shades deeper, tossed restlessly against the low lands, reaching for their booted feet. The place seemed virtually lifeless aside from them. Hermione began to pace about.

"What exactly do Finfolk look like?" Severus asked as he watched her pace, the eerily glowing green net.

"No one knows. They can appear in any number of forms in order to attempt to lure young men and women in. I would say, if you see anything conspicuous, living or otherwise, then it is Finfolk. Copinsay has been uninhabited for nearly thirty years."

"I hope that Finfolk don't brutally murder their captives?"

"Oh, no. They force them into a life of servitude as a spouse. Finwives are especially keen on young men, as unless they can capture one and marry them in Hildaland they cannot retain their youth and mystical charm."

"Hildaland?"

"It's the disappearing island home of Finfolk. The only way a mortal can see it is as a captive of either a Finman or a Finwife."

"This is the single most ridiculous thing I have ever heard."

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"And you seem quite keen on baiting dangerous creatures."

"And you are _just_ figuring this out?" Hermione said with a mock-flirtatious wink and a quick toss of her hair (mannerisms which looked rather ridiculous on the visage of a teenage boy) before immediately returning to business. "Disillusion yourself and get a knife and bag ready for the Finwife's hair. Transfigure something into silver. If worst comes to worst and the Finwife gets me, toss it into the water and it should distract her. Finfolk love silver. Once you are gone I will sit near the water and wait for something to happen."

"What exactly are we waiting for?"

"Anything from a Siren song or a beautiful mermaid to an old shirt floating by."

"Brilliant." Severus muttered before walking to the other end of the island and disillusioning himself. Hermione sat by the water and waited for something to happen.

Hermione's mind wandered as the hours passed. She knew how badly Harry needed Sirius. She had seen how withdrawn he had become, even from Ron. She knew that his grades were terrible as he could not muster the effort to obtain the mediocre marks he could definitely manage without her help. He did not play quidditch anymore and he did nothing else a boy of his age should enjoy due to his imprisonment. He went through the motions of his days half-heartedly at best as he was taught by tutors in the safe house Dumbledore had imprisoned him within. Whatever time he had to himself he spent dreaming and yearning for an old man who would never wake.

"And Dumbledore can do nothing." She muttered to herself when suddenly a shrill cry sounded from the mist.

* * *

KnM: Thanks so much! And no. He didn't.


	66. Mind Controll

"Please…" Harry panted as he held both his chest and his forehead. Blood coated the back of his hand and his head pounded. He had bitten through his tongue in a harrowing fit of agony. His whole body spasming as he choked on his own blood.

"Need…" He gasped as he rolled over onto his side, rather resembling and emaciated beached whale drenched in its own foul blood as it flounders, virtually drowning in air. He spat his own blood onto the ensanguined soft brown earth. He seemed caught between life and death, heaving so hard that the bones exposed through his tattered clothes looked about ready to tear through his pallid paper-thin skin.

Suddenly another deep gash formed in his side, the skin seemingly ripping itself apart.

"NO!" Harry cried angrily and a cloaked figure collapsed from the darkness, the spell ceasing. Harry slowly rose, his lip cleanly split and the rest of him caked with dirt. Dust settled about him. Blood ran from several newly carved orifices. He watched the prone figure struggle against the spell he was maintaining to no avail and smirked. With an uncharacteristically graceful flick of his wrist and delicate wand movement the body was slowly rotated onto its front to reveal the terrified face of Albus Dumbledore, half of the beard singed away. The old man began to beg and plead and Harry laughed.

"Crucio!"

Harry awoke to cold hands on his face and neck and winced reflexively only to find that he was not in the blinding pain he should have been experiencing after a vicious mock-duel with Lucius Malfoy and consequently being knocked unconscious.

"You're form leads much to be desired as does your reaction time, however your stamina and tolerance for pain are quite…promising."

Harry only blinked at the blonde man before starting to scream bloody murder.

"Quiesitus!" Malfoy cried and Harry stopped screaming shortly after realizing that no sound was coming from him. He glared up at the older man with all the venom he had the energy for before collapsing again. Lucius sighed.

"Has the boy finally lost his sanity? I suppose we cannot work on his charm lessons now." The man muttered aloud and suddenly a black stag appeared before him.

"His conscience is corroding any serenity left within him. He is guilt ridden for accepting our _necessary_ aid and it is manifesting in cruel nightmares. Have Severus see about a potion for that."

"Like mind control my lord?" The blonde man replied with a sadistic grin and the patronus seemed to smirk and shake its head before dissipating

The stag disappeared before Lucius could respond. The man sighed as he levitated an unconscious Harry to the sofa in the living room of the rather small safe house. He used a specially constructed port key to leave. It was untraceable and absorbed all traces of magic along with it, so that nearly an hour later, when Dumbledore arrived to check on Harry, he found nothing out of the ordinary.

The man looked to Harry as he quaked and trembled in his sleep.

"Dammit Malfoy!" The headmaster heard Harry groan through gritted teeth and sighed. He sighed sadly before apparating away.

* * *

KnM: A Kelpie is actually an enchanted water horse specific to lochs and rivers (or so it says on wikipedia) ;). Finfolk are pesky shape shifters specific to the waters around the orkney islands.

Hazelwolf11: Thanks for the review. If you or others don't like unhappy endings then you all can feel free not to read. I am sure that wherever you are it is a basically free country. It is impossible to please all of the people all of the time. It just can't be done. Just as there are people like KatAndMonkey and Alexthe Anachronistic (who enjoyed ARTF so much that they reviewed almost every chapter when they read) there will be people who don't enjoy it. That's the beauty of art (even mediocre art, like this).


	67. Is Your Wife A Finwife?

Hermione watched warily, snapping awake from her trance as a beautiful half-naked woman drifted several feet from shore. She drifted on a plank of wood, wet and glistening from the sea. Long dark hair was twined about her and a shell pendant lay on her pallid breast. She was perfection and her bright blue eyes pierced Hermione, only seeing a young man.

"Le do thoil cabhraíonn tú mise!" The woman wailed. While Hermione did not speak Irish Gaelic it was obvious that the woman was crying out for help.

"Le do thoil cabhraíonn tú mise!" The woman cried again, ample breast swelling and deflating. Hermione heard a soft intake of breath behind her and felt the need to glare at Severus. She looked back only to see him suddenly visible and starting to walk toward the woman.

"Stop!" Hermione hissed and grabbed his arm, but the man pushed her away as he stalked toward the creature. After a brief internal conflict Hermione decided to use the man as bait. She watched as he licked his lips hungrily, as if prepared to devour the woman tethered to the raft and bristled slightly. Hermione walked up behind him with the disillusioned net. She watched as the piece of wood the woman was tethered to conveniently drifted closer and she held out a hand toward Severus.

The dark man took the woman's hand in his and reverently pressed it to his lips. Hermione had never seen him appear so love struck and jealousy boiled deep within her. "Come my love, just a bit closer." He purred and the woman's bonds seemed to tighten about her wrists and legs as they spread against the wet wood. She moaned wantonly and arched into his touch with abandon. Severus smirked and Hermione crossed her arms, ready to simply leave the bastard with his harpy.

"Shall I untie you?" He asked in a deep sensual drawl as he ran long fingers against her glistening taut stomach. The temptress then raised an eyebrow suggestively and shook her head no before slowly raising her pelvis, the vines magically slackening enough for both Severus and Hermione to glean the moist folds between her voluptuous thighs. Severus moaned and leaned down to kiss the woman. One hand entwined in her long windblown hair and the other dallied between her thighs. She moaned and keened against him with unmatched ardor.

Suddenly she emitted a shrill shriek and bit clear through Severus's lip. Both Severus and the finwife disappeared beneath the spray leaving only the blood that had gushed from his split lip at the surface. Hermione began to panic, suddenly realizing that the net was gone.

She cast a quick charm to allow her to breathe underwater and dove into the spray. Through the murky water she could see Severus holding a lock of dark hair in one hand as the finwife (no longer a beautiful wanton slut but a grotesque amphibious creature with webbed fingers and a green complexion) attempted to pull him into the deep. She watched as he reached into his pocket with another hand and drew out a silver necklace. He let it fall into the deep and the finwife followed it, disappearing into the murk. He muttered a charm and was propelled out of the water. Hermione quickly followed suit.

Once again standing on the sure of Copinsay the pair quickly spelled themselves dry and Severus put the lock of dark hair into a labeled bag, which he then stowed away in his robes.

"I never thought that you would be the jealous type." He said after a long silence. Before Hermione could respond he pulled her close and mere seconds later she found herself falling onto his living room floor.

* * *

KnM: It will be explained eventually. ^^

The musical I'm in ends saturday so I'll finally have some time to wrap this up and make a dent in the sequal.


	68. Not Dead Yet

Harry wondered if he was doing the right thing. He had given Voldemort not only full access to the majority of his mind and his safe house, but was spending hours alone everyday with the father of Hogwarts' resident bastard. He could see that the man wanted him. It was plain as day. He had accepted the man's training daily and was on the verge of accepting his advances. He knew that it was only a matter of time before he called for Voldemort to take him away and allowed Malfoy his way. His hand was practically calloused and he was losing his mind in the small white safe house. The more he thought about it the more it made sense to join Voldemort, at least for a little while.

Even if Sirius would have hated him for it and even though it meant that he would probably never see the man he loved again, it didn't matter. The man he loved had been dead for months. Voldemort had taken his parents and while it hurt he had barely even a memory of them. Dumbledore's foolishness had taken all that he had ever had. First Hermione, then Sirius.

Sirius…

While he would never partake in the man's perverse ideology, he could learn things from him the Dumbledore had neglected to teach him. All Dumbledore had done was make a house elf of him and then toss him into a world of chaos wholly unprepared. In the midst of danger he had done nothing to protect him time after time and even less to train him for what would surely be his imminent demise at the rate he was going.

As he sat on the floor with his head in his hands he felt a presence enter his mind and fought to block it to no avail.

"Wow! Your Occlumency has improved drastically!" Was the first thing he heard and he recognized it immediately as the voice of Hermione with a decidedly Snape-ish inflection. Before he could respond she started again. "Picture the very room you are in right now." He did exactly as she said and within seconds a taller and far more adult-looking Hermione popped into the living room of the safe house, only she was transparent. While he was used to using a similar mode for Lucius' arrival, he was not used to having him arrive as a transparent reflection of himself. He gaped at Hermione, who looked every bit a ghost.

"I'm not dead you idiot. At least not yet," She chided good-naturedly. "I have combined muggle magic with some old magic in order to be able to project an untraceable astral image of myself. A very deft muggle could probably sense my presence but no wizard would even consider such a thing." After a moment of pride at her accomplishments a deep frown twisted her lips. "You look awful Harry. You have to get out of here." She said and Harry rose from his position on the floor.

"Before I take any advice from you I want some answers." He said and Hermione looked slightly surprised.

"That's very…prudent of you."

"What, you don't think spending hours every day with probably the most underhanded man who ever lived would make me a bit smarter?"

Hermione smiled knowingly as Harry began his questioning. "What happened to you? Where did you go? Where have you been? And what exactly has happened that merits you not only faking your own death, but placing some kind of spell on me that stops me from talking about you at all?"

"Umbridge nearly killed me with that quill of hers as well as all kinds of potions to get me to tell the truth. Snape saved my life and has been keeping me hidden for both his sake and mine. For your own safety I cannot tell you where he is hiding me or why. Know that it is necessary. Now that I have finally perfected this spell I can come to you wherever you may be as both a friend and an advisor. I cannot tell you how or why but I have access to all of the information from every side and angle regarding this war. I can see to it that you win." She finished and Harry seemed to think deeply for long moments.

"He gave you some of his magic didn't he?" Harry asked and Hermione's mouth fell open completely. "And why would he do that unless…unless…" Harry barely spoke the words. "He loves you." Harry then began to pace about the room wildly. "It explains the dark mark on your arm! It explains the change in your mannerisms! It explains why you spied on me for him in the first place!" He finished and raced around the room again before stopping as he came to another conclusion. His entire face was green with blatant disgust. "You two haven't been fuck-"

"Mr. Potter!" Hermione barked and folded her arms indignantly with a certain grace even as she turned beet red. The strange combination of the old Hermione he remembered as well as a good measure of Snape was so absurd that Harry could not help but laugh. The absurdity of his own life seemed to hit him full force at that very moment and he could not help but cackle. He stopped abruptly upon feeling a hard hand across his cheek.

"I didn't come to watch you laugh yourself into a coma like some sort of simpleton!" She said, her arms still folded beneath her breasts. It looked as if she had not moved them at all "And you are _no one _to judge my tastes-"

"Hey, I got a lover and a dog in one. All you've got is a dungeon bat." Harry smirked as he mentally put Snape on the list of people he could trust. A true death eater would never sacrifice a piece of himself for a muggleborn witch even once.

"Is Malfoy teaching you how to banter as well?" She snapped before regaining her composure. "I came to tell you to go with Voldemort. It's the only way. Forget about Dumbledore's rules. As they say, all is fair in love and war. Learn whatever he can teach you and I will be with you always. I'll be your eyes in this infernal mess."

"That's what I was going to do." He said. "I'll only feel better about doing it now that I know I have you to help me. You really are brilliant Hermione."

"I knew I liked you for a reason, but I've got to go now. I'll contact you once you are within Malfoy Manor." She said and disappeared, leaving Harry alone to think about how he was going to leave.

"So, Voldemort's hiding in Malfoy Manor." Harry said as he sat back on the sofa with a transiguration essay that he would never finish.

* * *

KnM: That was one hell of a fishy. lol.

Beauty and the Beast closed last night so I will have more time to dedicate toward ARTF. There will be 1-3 updates a week until the end. Hope you enjoy.


	69. Awful Stuff

Dumbledore was sitting at his desk on a Friday evening thinking of the virtues of employing muggle weapons to carry out Voldemort's demise when suddenly he heard a shrill scream from the back of his office.

"No!" He gasped and immediately ran to the closet in the back of his office to find a small wooden trunk jumping and screaming as it flashed sickening green.

"Impossible!" He cried as he opened the trunk and jumped inside, disappearing in a flash of light.

He reappeared in the safe house where Harry had been living for the last several months. Everything was in order; all of his things were half-arranged in an organized mess, as would be expected from a teenage boy, but Harry was conspicuously absent. There was no sign of a struggle and there was not a single suspicious trace of magic in the entire room. There were plenty of innocuous spells that made it obvious that a teenage boy had lived there for an extended period of time. It showed that the last thing conjured in the entire place was a cup of water, which Dumbledore found empty and laying on the floor beside his wand.

There was not a single disturbance in the wards either, which would have kept anyone meaning Harry harm out. Being that Dumbledore had placed any information regarding the safe house in a heavily guarded penseive after realizing that an unknown enemy was riffling through his mind, it was inconceivable that the intruder could have stolen any of his thoughts and used them to cheat the wards and kidnap Harry. There was not a trace of Voldemort's magic anywhere either.

It was then that he started searching through all of Harry's things by hand, hoping to maybe find some clue as to his disappearance. At last he took the cup in hand. He handled it gently for several seconds as if it were the last of his child he would ever encounter, before turning a pragmatic eye toward it. After coming to the conclusion that there was absolutely nothing special about it he set it back down on the floor and turned toward an old empty bookshelf. He seemed about ready to mutter something when he suddenly turned, strode towards the wand and cup on the floor, scooped them up with a dolorous expression, and returned to the bookshelf.

"Aperio altus ianua parumper fidelis anima." He muttered and disappeared. Albus returned to his desk with the cup and wand still in his hands. Suddenly the world began to tilt precariously around him and Albus knew that if he did not grab onto something he would fall to his death.

Back in the safe house there was a rustle beneath the bed in Harry's room, a cloak was whipped to the side, and Harry Potter and Lucius Malfoy were revealed lying pressed against one another so that the entire invisibility cloak would cover them. Harry immediately jolted off of the bed.

"I don't like this at all." He said as he reached under the bed.

"Relax Potter. You'll have your magic back by the end of the night." Lucius said as he lazed on the bed and languidly ran his fingers through his hair. He watched Harry struggle to grasp the quick quotes quill scribbling away beneath the bed with his usual laissez-faire smirk.

"And you trust your wife to actually give it back to us? She thinks you're having an affair with me. We'll be lucky if it comes back intact." He muttered in between pained groans as his arm and the underside of the bed.

"And she'll be lucky if she comes back intact if the Dark Lord were to find out that anything happened to our magic while it was in her possession." Lucius returned and Harry pulled the quill from the bottom of the bed as well as the parchment it had written on.

"It wrote the incantation but how exactly is it supposed to work if we do not have our magic?"

"Even a normal wizard would not have enough magic to manipulate the wards which kept you in. Once you say the incantation the magic of this pathetic box thankfully propels you earthward. Since it was made specifically to keep you from exiting in any way other then by using the incantation along with the willing participation of an adult you trust, this is the only way. Did the Dark Lord not explain this to you?"

"Barely." Harry replied. "But, in any case, there's a problem with your plan."

"And what is that?"

"I don't trust you."

Lucius arched an eyebrow delicately and rose slowly from the bed. A dark chuckle escaped him.

"Even after all of the time we spent training together?" He asked and fear gleamed in Harry's eyes as he drew closer though the boy held his ground.

"The first time I met you, you slipped a diary into my best mate's little sister's cauldron which nearly killed her, on the second you tried to kill me, and on the third you disguised yourself as the only man I have ever loved, damn-near raped me and then-" Harry was silenced immediately as Lucius began to sweetly nip at his lips and while Harry was rigid and fearful it was not long before a determined and supremely talented Lucius had him entirely capable of thought, at the mercy of his mouth and hands.

When Lucius pulled away Harry found himself standing in a dark room full of bizarre objects beside an open trunk with the older man's hands teasing the waistline of his pants and his own hands curled into fists in his silvery hair. Harry indignantly pulled away and Lucius smirked.

"How about now?" He asked and Harry bristled as he was led into the office of an unconscious Dumbledore and toward the fireplace.

"You really think that Dumbledore will not notice if we use his floo?" Harry asked and Lucius sighed.

"He will check for a magical signature. Being that we don't have any magic in us there will be none and it will seem as if two _muggles_ used his floo."

"And he won't find that suspicious? You may think Dumbledore is many things, but you gotta admit that the man's not stupid."

"From that he will ascertain that we have taken your magic and you are of no use and will probably look for other avenues of defeating the Dark Lord."

"You think he will abandon me for dead, just like that?"

"This is war Harry." Lucius said as he grabbed floo powder from a pot on top of the mantle in one hand, Harry in the other, and jumped into the fireplace. He regarded the pathetic form of Albus Dumbledore, laying prone on the floor and clawing at it like a frantic kitten.

"That was a rather brilliant idea of yours, I must say." Lucius said and Dumbledore let out a pathetic wail as he bit into the carpeted floor. "Even I didn't know muggles were this wretched."

"Yeah, LSD. Awful stuff. Really." Harry said sadly and the second Lucius felt him pulling toward Dumbledore he gripped him even closer.

"Malfoy Manor." He said and the pair disappeared, wreathed in green flame.

* * *

KnM: You shall see! It'll be pretty epic.

AN: Jr. Year sucks.


	70. A History Lesson Interrupted

"We are running out of time Severus." Hermione said as she looked over the list of the things they had procured and the things they had not. "I can procure the lotus fruits, the Austras Koks leaves, and the Raskovnik myself. Then we will only need the cambion heart, hamingja, and gold coins from the stomach of the alicanto. And I really should not be traveling anywhere when I am pregnant, so it would be best if I were to procure these items now."

Severus glared but held his tongue. Not only was the potion he was brewing incredibly frustrating, but it nearly killed him to think of Hermione being served to a random demon on a silver platter. "Fine." He said coldly. He wondered why on earth the Dark Lord wanted a non-addictive version of Dreamless sleep anyway. Such a thing would help people. He assumed he would find out at that night's meeting and let it slip into the back of his mind as he added a bit more heat to the bottom of the cauldron and let it simmer.

"While I am away you might want to work on borrowing a hamingja." Hermione said as she sat beside him and Severus sighed.

"What on earth is a hamingja and why can I not just buy or capture one?"

"Hamingjas are Norse guardian angels. A hamingja guards a person and is passed to his or her dearest relative when they die. A hamingja can also be lent to a friend. Do you have any acquaintances of Norse decent?"

"Ulric Engstrom, but he is an irrefutable bastard. Even if he had one I doubt he'd lend it to me."

Hermione smirked. "He's a death eater, yes?"

Severus nodded.

"Hamingja can also be viewed as Norse karma amongst the family. If he is a death eater who believes in the power of Hamingja he will be looking for opportunities to do good deeds in order to circumvent the ill-luck he has cursed the future generations of his family with. Or perhaps he will even want to get rid of it to place all of the ill luck on you."

Severus blinked. "So, you are basically saying that by being a hideous prig he's cursing the future generations of his family?"

"Yes."

"What if he is not in possession of a hamingja at all?"

"Then through him we will borrow someone else's. Most hamingjas have been forgotten and aren't very loyal anymore. You see, the Little Ice Age in the Medieval Period forced the Vikings to seek warmer climes in order to survive. After leaving Scandinavia many assimilated-"

"I am not in the mood for a history lesson Hermione. Get to the point."

Usually Hermione would not have complied so quickly but she knew that a couple rounds of crucio at Voldemort's hand as well as being sadistically overworked would make anyone's temper a bit short.

"Very well." She said as she wrapped her arms around his middle and placed her head on his shoulder.

"Ask Ulric Engstrom if you can borrow his hamingja. There's a very good chance he doesn't even know what that is and won't care. All you have to do is get him to say _I release my Hamingja to the aid of my brother in arms Severus Tobias Snape._"

"That's it?" Severus asked as Hermione pressed her cheek against his shoulder.

"Yup." She replied before getting up and she swore she saw Severus' shoulders slump slightly in disappointment. "I'm going to prepare to leave. I will travel to Serbia, Russia, and lastly Greece. I hope to return in a week, although I cannot say how long it will take me to find the Raskovnik."

Hermione waited a couple of minutes for Severus to reply and when he did not a disheartened Hermione left to pack.

In her left pocket Hermione had shrunk clothes and provisions and in her right weapons and other things which could be used to fend off any malevolent creatures she might encounter. As she walked from her room, down the hallway, down the stairs, and across the ground floor of the manor Hermione found it empty and couldn't help but be disappointed. She had hoped that Severus would say goodbye. Her disappointment grew as she came to the entrance hall alone. As she placed her hand on the old wooden door she felt a long-fingered hand splay across her shoulder.

A somber looking Severus stood behind her.

"Goodbye." She said quietly and felt several of his fingers ghost along her neck and gently tilt her face as another finger swept a stray hair from her face. Her lips parted and with his own peculiar grace he bent to place a soft kiss on her lips. Her delicate hands felt the lines of his face as his pulled her closer.

And as Severus eventually pulled away, hindered for an instant by the teeth holding his bottom lip, he saw fathomless dark eyes peering back at him with unbridled ardor.

"Hermione." He said with a short nod as he stepped away. He watched as the young witch disappeared.

* * *

KnM: I make no promises. Then again, this story could definitely use some more sex.


	71. Mulciber and the Lestranges

Harry was nearly carried out of the fireplace at Malfoy Manor to meet three men. Two were broad and brown-haired with Sirius-like silver eyes and the other was lanky with an awkward face and long greying red hair.

"Potter, these are Rudolphus and Rabastan Lestrange and Eligio Mulciber. They will be tutoring you, as well as several others in different aspects of spell-work."

Harry watched the men closely. He took in their tentative gazes with some comfort. At least they were not completely false. "Several others, Malfoy?" He asked while still sizing up the two other men. He addressed the older man just as he was coached to and saw surprise flicker in the eyes of the other death eaters.

"Yes, my son as well as several others—over the summer."

"Ah." Harry replied with supercilious disinterest similar to Lord Malfoy's and the other men wondered exactly how much time they had spent together. There was absolutely no inflection in the young Potter's tone. "Very well. So, what now?"

Lucius smirked. "I will show you to your room."

The mens' eyebrows rose. They expected to be saddled with the boy whilst Malfoy went and licked the Dark Lord's boots.

"Personally? What have I done to deserve such an honor?" Harry asked drolly while the other death eaters watched in awe. From what they had gathered from gossip Harry was a tool and didn't have a wit in him.

"Don't flatter yourself. It is just that I don't trust you near any of my house elves." Malfoy said in a similar tone and Harry rolled his eyes as they walked away.

"Yes, how many galleons did I cost you again?"

"Watch yourself potter. A familial lord has unmatched protection in his own domain."

"But do his house elves?"

"If one house elf goes missing I'll string you up by your intestines from the rafters; by hand."

"Dually noted."

When their voices finally disappeared around the corner Mulciber looked at the Lestranges.

"I think I need to lie down." He said and the Lestrange Brothers grinned.

"Apparently it was Potter's idea to dose Dumbledore with muggle poison." Rabastan said and Rudolphus nodded.

"Who knew he had it in him." Eligio murmered and Rabastan let out a snort.

"That's not all he's going to have in him judging by the way Malfoy's carrying on."

"Do you really think Malfoy's—" Rudolphus began and the other two nodded. They stood around in silence for several long moments before Eligio finally spoke.

"So, what do we do now?" He asked and the Lestrange brothers blinked vacantly for several moments before announcing in unison-

"Cormac's!"

The three death eaters disappeared.

* * *

KnM: You have got to be the most loyal reviewer on earth. Seriously. ^^.

Ashlin Raine: Did you not read the warnings before beginning this? They are specifically "AU, Dark, Slash, Het, Violence, Lang, Drugs, _**Underage**_, Magical Creature Sex, Noncon, Character Death, Unhappy Ending, Sexy!Snape, OOC, Dark Humor, general blasphemy." I explicitly stated that there would be UNDERAGE freakyness going on! Can you not read? Or is it just that 40 year old men fucking teenagers is ok when that 40 year old man happens to be Snape? Enlighten me, oh torch bearer of the moral parade.


	72. Care To Explain Why You Are Chained Up?

Lucius watched smugly as Harry fought to suppress his awe at the inner trappings of his mansion. He knew that few others would even be able to tell about the inner battle raging inside his pupil and grew even smugger as he congratulated himself on a job well done.

"We have arrived." He said as they came to a green door which bore no doorknob. Lucius surveyed his surroundings and after deciding that no one untoward was present he took Harry's hand in his and guiding an index finger in a straight line on the door.

"Now only you can enter." He whispered as the door swung open. Harry quickly removed himself from Lucius' grasp and stepped inside.

"Fuck." Harry murmured as he looked at a ceiling at least thirty feet high and at a carpet below him that looked more like an intricately woven tapestry. A chandelier of silver serpents hung high on the ceiling, coiling about each other and calling in a chorus of greetings and questions. High open windows larger than most beds stretched the far wall and shimmering curtains fluttered gracefully in the moonlight.

"Hello." Harry called back. He was too enraptured by his surroundings to notice the elder Malfoy flush. Rich redwood chaises and a divan rested around a low table and several paintings adorned the walls. There were three doors on the far wall, none of which had doorknobs.

"You'll find your bedroom, study, and training room respectively." Lucius said with barely a nod and Harry hardly heard as he was too busy staring in awe at the chandelier.

"I was named Silvanus." He heard a hiss come from the chandelier and saw a particularly large snake with green gems for eyes glancing down at him with interest. "And you are?"

"Harry Potter." Harry replied and the snake seemed to nod offhandedly.

"Are you the big one's mate?" Silvanus asked and Harry started to laugh.

"No."

"Tell him that, Harry Potter." Silvanus said before disappearing back into the din of entwined snakes which somehow managed to hold three tiers of black candles. Harry turned around to meet the undeniably flushed face of Lucius Malfoy.

"You and I will meet with the Dark Lord in two hours time. He will return our magic. Someone will collect you in precisely an hour and a half." Lucius Malfoy said stiffly before quickly bowing and exiting.

Harry sighed before running his finger along a door in a similar fashion as he had done before. It swung open to reveal a large bedroom decorated in red and black. A large luxuriant bed of silk was flanked by two large windows with vermillion drapes. A moonlit garden gleamed through them beneath two large balconies. Another chandelier hung from a ceiling bewitched to mirror the entire room. There were several paintings within, all of which the occupants appeared to be asleep. He severely doubted that they were.

As he sat on the bed and marveled at the luxuriant feel of the silk beneath him he felt a familiar presence push into his mind and was greeted by the sight of a tired Hermione with chains locked about her feet.

_I didn't know Snape was into that. _

_**Shut up Potter. **_

_Someone's in a good mood. _

_**Obviously. **_

_Someone has also been spending a bit too much time with Snape. _

_**For an unknown reason I find my list of possible companions deplorably short. **_

_Obviously. _

_**At least I don't continually find myself pressed between Little Lucius and the nearest hard surface.**_

Harry had no response.

_**Now listen, once your magic is returned I will be running diagnostic scans on you to see if it has been tampered with at all. **_

_Care to explain why you're chained up? _

_**Harry, that is hardly relev- **_

_I beg to differ. _

_**Fine, anger the only person that can help you. How prudent. **_

_Sorry. I mean; nice earrings. _

_**I'm not wearing earrings. **_

…

…

…

_**Fine, well I will run diagnostic scans on you when you return you sodding prig. **_

_Love you to Herm. _

Hermione rolled her eyes before disappearing. Harry knew that she despised the nick name.

Soon his satisfaction wore thin and he found himself in need of entertainment. Harry decided to explore his study.

* * *

KnM: Idk if they are even going to screw yet. It wouldn't be integral to the plot, but if anyone particularly wants it I'd be happy to throw it in as I have developed a fasination with skank!Harry.

trollen: Thanks man. I hope I continue to impress.

An: Don't judge me about the whole "Skank!Harry" thing. I was an athenian man in a past life. Oh and I checked my stats today on a whim and saw that I now have several readers from Kazakstan. I wasn't actually planning on mentioning anything about my stats until then end of the sequal, but...IT'S FRICKIN KAZAKSTAN! How boss is that? Oh, and I have just discovered the magic that is Qntal. In my house there is this vegan Thai-in-a-box deal called "Tom Yum" and all I can think is that Voldemort is not delicious. I'm getting a Jr. Prom dress tomorrow. My history teacher was checking out my rack today. It seems that catholic people are hopelessly drawn to me. He totally got scared when I caught him. I wish that I had the wherewithall at the time to wink at him. Man, why is "Don't Stand So Close To Me" by the police suddenly playing in my head? Is anyone else pissed off by Lauri's blonde hair (He's the lead of the Rasmus). God it's a terrible color.


	73. David Bowie Happens

Hermione sighed miserably as she trudged across frozen Serbia in the moonlight, the locked chains about her feet leaving awkward imprints in the grass.

The early Serbian winter had brought an unusually heavy snow, leaving Hermione first with the task of melting impossible lengths of the frozen countryside before hunting for the prized grass beneath. A simple charm had done this for her, but she was quickly growing tired.

Her natural cleverness had first lead her toward various methods of cheating (all of which she found did not work). In different accounts she had come across using hedgehogs and turtles to find the Raskovnik, but as both involved stealing innocent infant animals from their unsuspecting mothers and maltreating them she could not bring herself to go that route. She had attempted using various charms, everything from enchanting locked boxes and sending them in search of the grass, to summoning it, to attempting to use a charm a local had given her. After three days of failure she came to the conclusion that there would be only one way.

So she trudged along.

She downed pepper up potion after pepper up potion and dragged her sore chained feet behind her, clearing foot after foot of snow as she went on mourning her bad luck. Research had not only led her to Sandžak, an area prone to the harshest winters within Serbia, but on top of that no one even knew what Raskovnik looked like and the only way to know it was for it to unlock anything it touched. Whether kept by the most powerful muggle or magical means it was legendary for its inherent abilty to open any lock—hence the leg irons.

_A gentlewoman? A handsel! Yes indeed. What wailful fate has befallen the young pretty?_

Hermione was not aware that almost a week had passed when suddenly she found herself face to face with a thick snow covered wood. She fell to the ground, sobbing with frustration before the thick wood. By no act of her own she quickly fell asleep in the snow, exhausted and vulnerable to all. Soon she began to freeze.

He crept upon the sleeping girl, shivering and blue.

_A stray child perhaps?A wayfarer? _

He looked at her leg irons and felt the strong magic the dying child emanated. He sighed unhappily.

_It has been a long while since a witch has been slain so._

He scooped the poor sleeping girl into his arms and disappeared into the forest.

* * *

AN: Sorry for the long wait. Real life happens. So does David Bowie.

KnM: Yeah, he's a dick face. I wasn't fond of him in canon either.


	74. Fun

Harry looked up at Voldemort from beside Lucius Malfoy. The man seemed to be growing more and more human by the day. His grey serpentine skin was startng to take a more eathly tinge and his eyes were a serene hazel. A circle of cloaked figures stood around them with their heads bowed. Snape stood glaring at Voldemort's left, the only without a cloak. He held a bag in his hands.

"Narcissa, bring forth the box." Voldemort called and the beautiful mistress Malfoy stepped forward carrying a deceptively plain wooden box. Her head was bowed submissively as she delicately placed it in his outstretched hand and was dismissed. Once she was gone the Dark Lord beckoned the pair forward.

"This will prove quite uncomfortable. First you, Lucius." The Dark Lord said and Lucius stepped forward, placing the tip of his wand into the box. Harry watched as the older man crumpled to the floor, shaking and silently screaming. Harry breifly looked at the Dark Lord to find him watching impassivley as his most loyal follower writhed and screamed miserably. Harry attempted to mirror the same indifference as the blonde lay on the floor, at last unmoving and silent.

"Now you, Harry." Voldemort said silkily and Harry stepped forward.

"Under your instructions I left my wand at Hogwarts, so the ministry can't find me or ever know what spells I use." He said and Voldemort smiled slightly.

"You see, first a wand would have to be made for you and this cannot happen without the return of your magic."

"So how will you return my magic, then?"

"Using a complex series of spells that will leave you in excruciating pain for days afterwards."

"Sounds like fun." Harry replied dryly and felt a tingling sensation against his legs and turned to see a luxurient black sofa restng behind him. As he gently ran a hand against the arm of the divan his world faded to darkness.

---------------------------

KnM: Sorry for the wait. My life has been crazy hectic lately and my muse is like a woman PMS-ing who was a bitch to start with.


	75. Colder Than a Corpse

Hermione was warm. Due to her innate senses of preservation and pleasure she sighed happliy and relaxed. What might have been minutes or hours later her mental faculties returned and she realized that she had fallen unconscious in the snow at the eaves of a forest; a place which was neither warm nor comfortable. Se slowly cracked one eye open and found thick green material which she rested prone upon, a wooden floor, and a roaring fire in her direct line of vision. Through the reaching auric fingers of flame she could see a far wall. Her bag as well as a club and a whip hung there.

She turned onto her back to find the ceiling of a large cabin. A large cobweb hung from the ceiling and a large green spider nestled there. Hermione immediately willed herself into her animagus form and watched as everything in the room grew larger and larger. Her new limbs tingled as she scaled the side of the building and approached the large green spider from afar.

"Where am I?" She asked.

"The Home of Master Javor the Lesovik." The spider said and the wheels began to turn in Hermoine's head. She remembered reading something about the creature known as the Lesovik during her research.

"The notoriously mischievous protector of forests and cattle?" She asked and the verdant spider nodded.

"The very same." The spider said.

"Is he…around?" She asked nervously and she swore that the spider seemed to smirk.

"Thankfully no."

"What do you mean?"

"He mates like a spider."

Hermione's eyes widened. "Like a spider?"

"Yes." The spider replied nonchalantly. "Once he kept one for days but eventually he tires of all of them. Hopefully you are more interesting." Hermione then looked to the club and whip hanging on the wall. Her legs lost grip on the ceiling as horrid visions of torture and rape swam before her many eyes. She screamed internally as she fell from the ceiling which seemed infinitely high in the eyes of a tiny spider.

As she tumbled down the giant green spider fell from the roof as well, becoming an impossibly tall man with wild viridian hair and glowing green eyes. He held his large outstretched hands before him and heroine tumbled into them, landing on her eight little legs. She looked up at the large man before her in fear.

"Hello." He said simply and Hermione realized that she had no escape. A fall from this height would surely kill her. She watched as his green eyes regarded her with playful amusement, as if he were a small toddler and she were a new set of blocks. They glowed eerily, his sun darkened skin only making them look more out of place.

"Would you return to your pretty old self for me?" He asked in a deeply accented voice and Hermione did so, knowing that she had little choice and had to play by his rules. So she willed herself back into her human form. Javor the Lesovik held her as if she were his bride to be, the large nails of his horny hands pressing into her back and legs. He lay her down gently on the green material she had slept on and sat beside her. As she searched the room for things to look at other than him she saw the spiderweb at the top of the cabin was vacant. The spider was the exact color of his hair and beard. Hermione tried to discretely capture a glance of him but the second she turned her head she met his penetrating gaze. He was the spider.

The second this dawned upon her Javor the Lesovik began to howl with mad laughter.

"Bastard." She muttered under her breath and he stopped immediately, pouting like a toddler.

"It was just a joke, lamb!" He said sincerely. "A jest on my part! Come on, give us a grin!" He said and for once in her life Hermione did not argue and just did as she was told. There was obviously something quite wrong with her captor.

"Ah, you don't mean it. But I suppose it will do for now." Hermione only watched as he rose and walked over to the opposite wall where his club and whip rested. Hermione shuddered as he took the whip and came near her, brandishing it with a grin. She screamed as he rose the whip and brought it down with tremendous force nearer and nearer to her.

The cruel bite never came.

When she opened her eyes he was sitting beside her, one arm dangling languidly off of his bent knee whilst he twined the whip about his his other hand and unwound it periodically. A bloody fly lay mashed against the wall where he had in actuality struck the whip.

"Come now, I'm not a monster." He said. "I just happen to possess an offbeat sense of humor. Do you know anything of me?" He asked and Hermione blinked at the abrupt topic change. He was either psychotic or borderline psychotic. Hermoine shivered as he looked at her.

"Not really sir." She said and he grinned. Hermione waited for the introduction which would customarily follow such a statement but it never came. He only stared blankly off into the distance. After a long while he turned his phosphorescent eyes back to her.

"I would like to help you." He finally said and Hermoine's eyes widened considerably.

"How?"

"Would you like to come for a walk?"

"What?" Javor the Lesovik then gently pulled her up by the arm and continued to hold her as he led her around his cabin in a circle. They did this several times before he stopped. Noticing the young woman looking up at him incredulously, he mirrored her perplexed gaze mockingly.

"Where exactly did you think we were walking? It's colder than a corpse out there!" He said with a small frown and sighed as he touched her forehead.

"Errr…sorry?" Hermoined tried and suddenly the world went black. Javor the Lesovik grinned as he laid her back on the green makeshift matress. He returned to his spider form and climbed up into his web where he could unobtrusively watch her sleep.

* * *

KnM: Don't worry. That is the one thing that I am about 99% sure won't happen.

AN: I'm sorry that I suck so much at updating.


	76. At Your Convenience

The order sat around the kitchen table in Grimmauld place. Their faces were grim. At the head of the table sat a near lachrymose Albus Dumbledore. Unshed tears glistened in his eyes behind his half moon spectacles.

"How could this have happened!?" Mrs. Weasely bellowed as her husband attempted to calm her. She pointedly ignored him as she glared at Dumbledore. "You convinced us that he would be safe locked away in that awful safehouse all alone like a damn prisoner!" Her tirade continued and the elderly wizard put his head in his hands.

He had specifically crafted the wards so they would only allow Harry to exit with the express permission and aid of a wizard he trusted implicitly. His escape meant that he had either fallen victim to darkness, or he was being manipulated. Dumbledore guessed the latter, as Harry had never been exceedingly intelligent. If not for his circumstances he would have been an unremarkably average young man.

"It must have been Snape!" Tonks called from beside Lupin. Anger blazed in her eyes. "Who else has access to both us and Voldemort? Who else would Harry have trusted and who else is a Death Eater!" She cried as she rose. Snape remained seated and seemingly disinterested.

"There is only one problem with your theory." He drawled as the others began to call out their agreement and silence fell upon the table. "Potter trusts me about as far as he could throw me and the boy has always been an abysmal weakling." He said and Tonks growled.

"At least he's not a fucking prick!" She cried and Molly Weasley began to admonish her language when Snape interrupted, tisking and shaking one of his long elegant fingers with a condescending smirk.

"Lupin, how many times must I remind you to leash your bitch?"

This time Lupin rose. Snape only continued with obvious glee.

"Oh, you really know how to chose your friends don't you wolf?"

Lupin growled.

"Then again, I suppose beggars can't be choosers."

His fists clenched.

"Oh, what would the mutt say if he were here?"

A vein began to throb in his temple.

"He would probably plunge deeply into a heated…argument."

His eyes narrowed dangerously.

"After all, I just impugned the honor of his beloved godson. Oh, I doubt he would take kindly to my _mere_ insinuations."

Lupin lunged forward with a growl only to find himself pinned by a spell mere centimeters from Severus' face.

"Trying to finish what you started, wolf?" Severus breathed dangerously and suddenly Remus found himself laying against the table.

"He's clearly evil!" Mrs. Weasley called from her side of the table and the order members agreed wholeheartedly. After nearly ten minutes of screaming the room fell silent. Dumbledore rose from his chair.

"Severus, keep an eye out. Report to me at your convenience. You may go."

"Yes Headmaster."

After Severus left he turned to the rest of them. "We will not meet again as a whole for a long while. Report any information you might gather to me at your convenience." He said sadly and the remaining members of the order dispersed.

Once the last of them disappeared Albus sat back at the table and put his head in his hands.

"Poor Harry." He muttered as one of the house clocks ticked maddeningly and the nearby candles burned low throwing eerie shadows about the room. Images of the boy being tortured, starved, and imprisoned flashed through Dumbledore's mind and his head fell against the desk. "How am I supposed to win this war now?"

The imagined Harry screamed and writhed under a crucio, calling for help; his bloodied bludgeoned body nearly broken.

* * *

KnM: Hermoine is gonna have some major issues coming up. And since I am never sure of anything, those are about the best odds you will ever get from me.

shiadren: Thanks so much for all of your reviews! I think that I don't get as many reviews as most long stories because I warned that this would have an unhappy ending and I didn't use a usual slash pairing. Christian Bale was a terrible batman. The thing about batman is that you aren't supposed to think that he's batman. Even when he's Bruce Wayne there's something off about him, like if someone told you that he was batman you would go "Oh! That makes so much sense! He always did seem a bit off to me!"

All though, I do love Christian Bale. He's so damn good looking. ;)

AN: I just read this book that changed my life only to find out that it was written by a 13 year old girl. I don't buy that a kid wrote it. There is a bitterness and deep-seated misery in it that takes a lifetime to develop. Has anyone else read The Persian Rug?


	77. Rule of Thumb

Harry awakened to find cold hands pressed against his forehead and looked to see the phantasm of Hermione standing above him looking relieved.

"Thank god!" She exclaimed as he turned to face her, focus returning to the world as she placed his glasses back on him gently. Or at least, they should have. Harry made a small noise of suprise as he held them up to the light in an attempt to examine them.

"Hermione?" He queried blandly and she sighed.

"I almost cannot believe that your magic has been returned to you properly! I mean, I cannot find a thing wrong with you!" She exclaimed as she ran scans again and Harry began to drum his fingers against the bedspread tepidly as he handled his glasses.

"They are on my side, I think." Harry said as he sat up and stretched languorously, as if he were a great cat, and Hermoine's eyes narrowed.

"Remember who they are and what they stand for. _Nice_ as they may be to you, remember that if they had their way people like me would not even be allowed to exist. It would be like a second Holocaust." She warned as her arms folded. Harry nodded and a silence followed. Suddenly a spark lit in her eyes.

"There is something different about you." She murmered, her eyes widening. "They did something to your magic!"

"What do you mean? You just checked me and said that they did nothing." Harry then began to offhandedly rub the lenses of his glasses against his shirt and breathe on them repeatedly.

"Your body language has changed and…put down your glasses." She said and Harry did as he was told, only to find that he could see perfectly without them.

"You have been altered on both a subconscious and physical level. There would have to be some change in the potency of your magic unless…." Her eyebrows drew together and she closed her eyes as she touched the tip of her wand to Harry's chest. "Extrico mihi ego sum faetor per ei recubo ego animadverto!"

As she finished an effigy of the dark mark in smoke rose from his chest and quickly dissipated.

"What the hell?" Harry murmured and Hermione paled.

"He knows that someone is helping you. We no longer have the edge we thought we did. He's making this clear." Hermione remained deeply in thought for a long while, her reverie only to be interrupted by Harry's sudden outburst of "Fucking Snape."

"Excuse me?" She murmured, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

"How do you think Voldemort found out about you? There is only one person who knows that you are even _alive _aside from me."

"Alive; yes. Using an advanced combination of muggle and wizarding magic to aid you in your deception? No. Severus has no idea. I couldn't risk it."

"So, you are telling me that you're _nailing_ him and you don't even trust him?"

"Rule of thumb," She hissed in response. "The fewer people are privy to information the safer it is. While it would never even cross his mind to even consider a dead mudblood a threat, he will now know that someone is helping you." She paled horribly. "The second he finds the charm he placed on you broken he will know that someone with great power, great knowledge, an unregistered wand, a dark mark, and unrestricted access to his manor has run diagnostic scans on you!"

Harry's eyes widened. He hated Snape but he didn't think that the man deserved…his jaw unhinged as well as he realized that he didn't give a fuck what happen to the greasy bastard.

"I've got to go!" Hermione cried before disappearing, leaving Harry alone with his thoughts.

He wondered what exactly he would tell Voldemort and what the future would hold as he lay in his luxuriant bed. He could hear Silvanus hissing in the parlor. Lucius had always told him to look at a situation from every possible angle before moving forward. His mind whirled. While he personally didn't care for one Severus Snape, a certain Albus Dumbledore did, and also needed him to help further his war effort. He would have to save the git. He was an instrumental player in whatever was to come.

"Poor sod." Harry murmured as he rubbed his temples, feeling a headache building.

* * *

KnM: Yeah, I'm not really a Dumbledore fan. And is the musical intentionally funny?


	78. Fuzzy Logic

Hermione awoke frantic on the floor of Javor the Lesovik's forest cottage to find his eerily green eyes watching her with blatant fascination.

"I've got to get back to England! He's going to kill Severus!" She cried and Javor only cocked his head to the side as if amused. Hermione made to rise but was fully stopped by one of his large hands.

"Sit." He said calmly and Hermione's jaw unhinged before tightening with rage.

"Don't you understand!? Voldemort will find him and torture him and _kill_ him and it's all my fault! And Potter? He hates Severus and will hand him over like a sacrificial lamb!" She raved and Javor only held out a wooden bowl full of thick stew and a primitive looking wooden spoon.

"Eat." He said as he brandished the bowl and Hermione only looked at him incredulously. "I haven't a mind for this Voldemort, Severus, sacrificial lambs, or pot makers. I am the guardian of the trees, the silent protector of the woodland and her posterity. I am earth-minded. Sup with me and then we will speak my foundling. But only then, you need your strength and I have a happy bequest for you, young sibyl."

Hermione pondered exactly why Javor had called her sibyl as she took the bowl of stew, already calmed by the warmth against her hands. She eyed the stew critically before taking a spoonful and was pleasantly surprised to find it was delicious. She watched from under her eyelashes as Javor indulged in six bowls of stew in the time it took her to eat one.

She sat full, happy, and momentarily placated as he passed her a wooden cup of wine. She sipped it as he spoke.

"Now, sibyl, I have peered into your soul as you slept. I saw your need and took it upon myself to find that which you sought." He then placed three small burlap sacks before her. Hermione opened them to find Raskovnik (which looked to be normal grass with the exception of its odd shimmer which was barely discernable) in one, five beautiful golden fruits nestled in soft white lotus flowers, and in the last sack five glimmering silver leaves of the Austras Koks rested and glowed.

"Wow." She murmured as she beheld the treasures laid in her lap. "Thank you so much, sir."

"It is no trouble at all. I do serve those who serve myself." He said and Hermione placed her wooden cup of wine on the floor, curiosity overtaking her.

"And, pray tell, how have I served you?"

He laughed a hearty laugh. "All magic folk are spirit-kin and especially those of power. You are quite extraordinary, you see."

Hermione nodded sadly. She was acutely aware of her rarity.

"Now, now. No need for self-pity. I simply mean to say that you are a wonder, beyond anything I have ever before encountered and I am certain that there is a fascinating tale behind both the odd emanations of your personage and your current situation. In return for these trinkets I ask that you relay it to me."

Hermione sighed. He wanted to know the how and the why. After gathering her thoughts she could not believe that only a year ago she was an entirely different Hermione.

"Well, it is a rather long story…" She stopped to see if he had any objections. When he only gestured with his hand for her to continue she took a deep breath and began.

"Well, it all started with this friend I have named Harry Potter. He's quite famous. Have you heard of him?"

Hermione smiled when Javor shook his head.

"Well, he's famous amongst witches and wizards, but he's really just your normal teenage boy. He's arrogant, impulsive, insensitive, and he's not all that bright. Due to a bunch of coincidences he's supposed to be the only one able to defeat this evil and incredibly powerful wizard named Voldemort." She stopped with a smirk when obvious confusion on Javor's face. "Don't ask. I'm a bit fuzzy on the logic of that as well…" Hermione's smile faded as her story progressed.


	79. The Voice of the Western Wood

Javor was staring at Hermione open-mouthed as she finished.

"And you see, I think I love him but I know for sure that Voldemort will not take kindly to his betrayal and that now it is only a matter of time before he's found out and killed for it. He must be warned!"

Javor nodded emphatically. "I can return you to your home in the west tonight, but only as far as the woods. I do not venture into civilization."

"Really? Thank you so much!" She cried.

Javor the Lesovik shook his head. "But for a price of course."

"Anything!"

"I see in you a compassion for those who cannot fight for themselves. Would you be the voice of the western wood? My magic does not hold sway so far from home." He said gravely and Hermione knelt before him. A smile nearly split her chapped lips.

"I will do whatever I can for as long as I am able." She said and Javor nodded as he took her hands in his. He pressed his verdant lips to her fingers and the next thing Hermione knew she was standing in the midst of a chilly snowless forest. A waning crescent moon hung high over head and Javor's gifts hung by her side in the magical bag. She smiled warmly at the feeling of familiar soil. Severus' manor loomed in the distance and her heart sank.

_Severus! _She called out mentally and nearly began to hyperventilate upon receiving no answer. _Severus! _She cried over and over again to no avail. Minutes passed when finally a groggy reply returned.

_Woman! Where have you been? I have been trying to contact you for nearly two weeks! Why haven't you answered? Are you hurt?_

Hermione smiled despite herself. Severus was worried about her.

_I am not you foolish witch! _He countered and Hermione somehow did not feel as threatened by the incredibly imminent danger looming above them in his presence.

_I will tell you everything. However, I have very grave news. _

_Hermione, what has happened? _

_For your own protection I cannot say exactly. _

Hermione could hear his discontented grumbling and almost smiled again. It had been so long since she had heard his voice.

_Severus, where are you? _

_Sleeping. It's three in the morning on a Wednesday. _

_In your bed? _

_No. In Dumbledore's. _

_You know, I learn something new about you every time we converse. _

_Oh, stifle yourself._

The next thing Severus knew a young and tousled-looking witch was lying beside him in his bed. A grin she could not hide escaped her as she wrapped her arms around him. Severus stiffly returned her embrace, his dark eyes holding untold thanks at her safe return.


	80. Demonstrations

That night as Harry slept Hermione came upon him wearing one of Severus' house robes. As she was rather petite and the man rather tall it swam on her. As she bent to awaken Harry the sleeve fell upon his face and he started to gag. His eyes opened wide.

_You smell like a cupboard full of poison. _He greeted as he took the sleeve off of his face. After looking at Hermione and the oversized robe he realized that it must have been Snape's and grimaced.

_Oh, grow up. _

_Unfortunately it doesn't seem I have much of a choice. _

_What do you mean? _

_His merry band of muggle-hating sycophants start training me in three days. I will become capable of some of the most horrible things imaginable. _

_Oh Harry… _

_Well, it's what I have to do if I want to kill him isn't it? _

…_Yes. _

_Then I'll do it. I just hope you and Sevvie-dearest have some sort of awesomely twisted scheme going on or else we are all fucked. _

_Oh. __**Severus**__ and I do. Don't you worry your empty little head. _

_You'll take that back when I am able to produce a wandless wordless spell that turns the body inside out inch by inch like it's a fucking Lumos. _

_Holy…just…I mean… _

_Exactly. _

_Voldemort can actually do that? _

_I don't think so. Snape's covering that department. _

_What do you mean? _Hermione turned white.

_He demonstrated at lunch. _

…

_Yeah, apparently in addition to being the resident Potions Master he's invented half of their torture curses. It's why Voldemort keeps him around even though he doesn't trust him. Thinks he's a real artist. _

Hermione's entire demeanor changed. Her mouth drew into a straight line and her eyes hardened.

_He and I have spoken. They will test you in terrible ways. You must maintain your inner light and your sanity. I will come to check on you and give you news regularly. You must be strong._

Hermione finished and with that she disappeared. She awoke in Snape's bed to find herself alone. She could hear him in the adjacent bathroom and with teary eyes apparated to his private library.


	81. Undone

Dumbledore sighed morosely as what would have been Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts drew to a close. That very morning, in only a few hours time, all of the students would leave. The old wizard put his head in his hands. He could feel pain building behind his temples and sighed.

Again and again his mind was ravished by the infuriatingly elusive intruder and after months he still hadn't an inkling as to the identity of the perpetrator. He could not trust his own thoughts, Harry had disappeared without a trace, and Voldemort's power was growing. He could only pray for a quiet summer. He only hoped that Voldemort stayed quiet long enough for him to do some research.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of three loud knocks on his door. Through the enchanted door he could see the tired, worried face of Minerva McGonnagol.

"Enter." He called wearily and the tired witch entered.

There was so much he longed to tell her, so much he had realized, and so much that he would never be able to speak aloud. The burden was his alone, and seemed to weigh fully upon him as his long-time second in command spoke.

"I had the strangest dream Albus." She said without preamble as she took a seat and the old headmaster sighed.

"Minerva, don't you think that it's a bit late for this?" He said, not unkindly, as he steepled his fingers and sighed.

"It was about Hermione Granger." The flustered woman said quickly and Albus did still not look interested. He poured them both a cup of tea and began to tepidly sip at his. "She placed a hand on my shoulder and told me to tell you three very important things."

"And what were those?" He said through a yawn and watched as her brow furrowed.

"Åndeliv. A boy born of fire lies in separate lives. You are undone."

Albus Dumbledore spit his tea halfway across the room.

* * *

Well, this is the end of ARTF. It's sequal, The Respite of the Fall, should be up by the end of the summer, however those of you that are reading this right now know not to trust me when I give myself deadlines. Lol. I will do my best. At the end of this I'd like to give a huge thank you to a lot of individuals. This story was far more popular than I ever thought it would be and I am amazed to say that I have had over 50,000 hits from readers in over 50 countries.

A final thank you to my reviewers: KatAndMonkey (who is probably the most loyal reviewer on planet earth), shiadren, trollen, Ashlin Raine, HazelWolf11, aliano, Narias, Benners, animesnape21, n0b0dys_ang31, Alicia Spinet, moony-is-a-werewolf, doralinda, hi-purr, Naruka, cookie moster, HeatherLB, Noc007, Pops, huh?, KnowingDivine, DebsTheSlytherinSnapefan, and munchnzoey!

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, Thank you kindly.

-L-'sA


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